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How an environmentally-minded biotech company boosted commuter benefits adoption and made employees' commutes smoother, smarter, and more flexible.
HQ: Philadelphia, PA
Industry: Biotechnology
Integral Molecular is a research-driven biotechnology company offering innovative solutions for advancing therapies against difficult-to-treat diseases. Founded in 2001, the company employs a passionate team of scientists, many of whom have roots in the company’s home city of Philadelphia.
While Integral Molecular’s employees come from many different backgrounds, Controller Krystyna Raporte sees a common thread:
“We are all very environmentally conscious. So with that comes an interest in public transportation.”
Despite their employees’ commitment to local transit, Integral Molecular’s HR leaders found that participation in their previous commuter benefits program was low, hovering at around 10-20%. A difficult enrollment process and lack of support meant that many eligible employees simply didn’t feel it was worth their time to sign up for commuter benefits.
To give employees a better commuting experience and to accommodate its growing workforce, Integral Molecular partnered with Jawnt to level up its benefits program and employee transportation options.
Through its previous benefits provider, Integral Molecular offered pre-tax commuter benefits, allowing employees to set aside pre-tax money to pay for transit or office parking. The parking benefit was the primary commuter option utilized for Integral Molecular employees, but saw only 10% adoption among eligible employees.
Human Resources Manager Anu Thomas attributes this to the previous provider’s difficult and time-consuming enrollment process. “Our employees wouldn’t utilize the benefit because of the number of steps they needed to go through to register,” she said. On top of that, the previous commuter benefits cards didn’t work reliably, and “it was impossible to communicate when you wanted to get a person on the other side to walk you through the steps when you hit a bump.”
The administrative burden extended to the HR team as well. “It was difficult to deactivate when an employee parted from the company,” Anu explained. “We saw some employees actually had some money lost because it sits in this in-between space.” HR and company leadership knew they could improve the commuting experience for their employees, and once they connected with Jawnt, the solution became clear.
Integral Molecular partnered with Jawnt to quickly and seamlessly roll over its commuter benefits program to Jawnt’s unified transportation platform.
For Krystyna, the key to a successful rollout starts with early and frequent communication. Once they knew their benefits program would be switching to Jawnt, leadership at Integral Molecular started by giving employees a heads up that a new commuter benefits solution was coming. “It was a huge relief [to our staff],” she said, “because people were not happy with the previous vendor.”
Leadership hosted a presentation and Q&A with employees, and kept them in the loop as the new program launched.
Jawnt was on hand to facilitate the rollover of benefits, and has continued to offer direct support to employees, from assisting with monthly contributions to helping employees understand which pass is right for them based on their commute. Krystyna and staff surveyed employees in their Philadelphia office to gather feedback on their experience using Jawnt.
Here's what they said:
“It is excellent. Easy to enroll, check the balance, and make changes to contributions. Online customer support is quick and timely.”
"I use Jawnt Pass to pay for parking and it has been great!"
"Jawnt is very user friendly and easy to set up. Highly recommend."
It wasn’t just the easy sign-up process that led to a boost in adoption among employees: direct integrations with transit providers are another big draw. By giving employees the option to connect their SEPTA Key card to their commuter benefit directly in Jawnt, Integral Molecular has seen a large uptick in participation.
“Over 70% of our SEPTA Key card holders are using two or three taps per day,” said Krystyna. “It's immediately very easy to see the savings we are bringing to employees.”
Additional commuting options are readily available through Jawnt as well, including PATCO and NJ Transit passes, as well as Jawnt Pass, which is used by employees who need to pay for parking near the office. It’s a level of flexibility that has changed many commuting habits for the best.
“In situations [where] I would have previously taken the MFL [Market-Frankford Line] or buses due to cost, I have opted for regional rail, which out of pocket would have been much more expensive,” said one employee. “I love being able to take regional rail with the Jawnt benefit.”
Another added:
“They've made it easier for me to get to work and also to get around the city.”
Jawnt has helped Integral Molecular transform commuter benefits from an underused perk into a high-value, high-impact part of the employee experience. For a growing company centered around science, Anu believes Jawnt’s focus on accessible transportation aligns well with their values and operations:
"We want to promote public transportation, and are happy to offer substantial savings to our employees.”
