The future of benefits administration: How Pacific Seafood modernized for growth

As businesses scale, their HR and benefits administration must evolve with them. Yet, many companies still rely on outdated, manual processes that create inefficiencies, compliance risks, and disengaged employees. The question is no longer whether companies should modernize their benefits administration—it’s how quickly they can make the shift to avoid costly mistakes and lost opportunities.

Pacific Seafood, a leader in the seafood industry, faced this very challenge. Rapid growth had outpaced their benefits infrastructure, leaving them with fragmented systems, manual data entry, and low employee engagement. Recognizing the urgent need for change, they turned to WEX to implement a modern, automated benefits administration platform.

The cost of staying stagnant

For too long, businesses have accepted inefficiencies as the norm. Manual enrollment processes, scattered data, and compliance risks aren’t just administrative headaches—they directly impact an organization’s bottom line and employee experience.

Pacific Seafood’s HR team dealt with:

• Manual data entry errors leading to coverage denials
• Compliance risks from inaccurate records
• Low employee benefits participation due to lack of visibility
• Outdated systems unable to scale with growth

These issues aren’t unique to Pacific Seafood. Across industries, organizations are realizing that legacy HR processes can no longer support a modern workforce.

The shift to strategic benefits administration

The key to modernizing benefits administration isn’t just about automation—it’s about creating a system that enhances efficiency, improves compliance, and engages employees. Pacific Seafood saw this firsthand with WEX.

With WEX’s platform, they were able to:

• Automate benefits enrollment, eliminating manual errors
• Centralize data for real-time accuracy and compliance
• Improve employee communication and increase engagement
• Identify and correct costly coverage errors

The results were staggering. Benefits participation increased by as much as 3,400%, compliance risks decreased, and HR gained the tools needed to make data-driven decisions.

Redefining the role of HR

Modern HR leaders aren’t just administrators—they’re strategic partners driving business success. Technology-driven benefits administration empowers HR teams to shift from managing paperwork to focusing on employee well-being, retention, and engagement.

Pacific Seafood’s transformation illustrates what’s possible when organizations embrace innovation. As their benefits and compensation manager, Jon Todd, put it:

“At the end of the day, WEX is getting us out of the early ’90s and into the modern era. That’s exactly what we needed.”

The future of benefits is now

Organizations that fail to modernize will struggle to attract and retain top talent in an era where employee expectations are higher than ever. HR leaders must take a proactive approach to benefits administration—leveraging technology to enhance the employee experience while ensuring compliance and efficiency.

Pacific Seafood’s journey shows that the right technology can drive efficiency, cost savings, and employee engagement. Read more of their story here.

The information in this blog post is for educational purposes only. It is not legal, tax or investment advice. For legal, tax or investment advice, you should consult your own legal counsel, tax and investment advisers. 

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