How Veho saved $50,000 in six months on leave administration

Dubbed the Uber of package delivery, Veho is a last-mile delivery logistics company for ecommerce. The company’s mission is to make shipping, shopping, and returns work seamlessly for everyone involved.

To do that, they provide personalized delivery options for customers and real-time support for brands, not to mention exceptionally speedy service. With market-leading transit times, Veho regularly scores above 99% for on-time delivery rates.

Veho is trusted by major brands like Warby Parker, Nespresso, and Saks Fifth Avenue, and was recently named a 2024 Great Supply Chain Partner by Supply Chain Brain.

Since its inception in 2016, Veho has grown to 850 dedicated employees spread across the United States—and the company is only just getting started. To support their employees as they continue to grow, Veho partners with Sparrow for full-service employee leave administration.

Creating a people-centered work culture

In the same way Veho is committed to cultivating a customer-centric delivery and returns experience, they’re committed to maintaining a people-centered workplace culture. Veho’s company culture is rooted in values like accountability, collaboration, respect, empathy, radical growth, and thoughtful risk-taking.

In addition to their four Employee Resource Groups supporting women, parents, veterans, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, Veho also offers a variety of employee benefits. Think: comprehensive health coverage, paid time off, flexible working arrangements, employee equity, and wellness programs.

“A year and a half ago, we implemented a 401(k) for the first time, which employees were very excited about, and also added a high-deductible health plan that pairs with a health savings account,” said Jodi Zahid, Manager of Benefits and Compliance at Veho.

“We’ve been working hard to build out an even more robust benefits package at Veho,” explained Zahid. One of the areas Zahid’s team wanted to improve was employee leave—so they sought out Sparrow for help.

The challenge: Managing leaves manually while supporting a growing population

Before teaming up with Sparrow, Veho managed employee leave in-house using a Google spreadsheet. “It was awful,” Zahid said.

She and her team had a complex set of factors to account for. “We have two distinct employee populations at Veho: our exempt employees who work remotely and our non-exempt employees who work on the ground in warehouses,” she explained. “Our non-exempt population tends to request leaves more often.”

Add in the fact that Veho employees are scattered across 25 different states, each with their own unique leave laws and benefits, and Zahid and her team had a recipe for administrative overwhelm.

“We were constantly Googling to make sure we were staying in compliance with each state,” she added. “It became very administratively cumbersome.”

Leave-related work was so tedious, in fact, that it began eating into their other daily tasks. “Leave administration took up the bulk of our day every day,” Zahid said.

Reviewing nuanced leave laws, tracking deadlines, filling out paperwork, and liaising with Veho employees became a full-time job. With even more internal growth on the horizon, Zahid and her team knew they needed an easier, more efficient way to maintain compliance and guide employees through the leave process.

“We have such a diverse employee population, and because there are new state laws popping up all of the time, we knew we needed to prioritize compliance,” explained Zahid. “We were really hoping we could bring on a third party to alleviate some of the work involved.”

They met with a few different leave management providers, and Sparrow stood out from the start. “We decided to go with Sparrow because they have such a solid foundation in the leave space—they’ve been around for a long time, and they’re still continuing to grow and add new functionality, which we liked,” said Zahid.

Zahid and her team also appreciated Sparrow’s glowing customer testimonials, and felt even more excited when Veho’s former CPO referred them to Sparrow. “We were hearing great things about Sparrow from all angles, and we had a great feeling partnering with our dedicated Leave Specialist throughout the process,” she added.

“We had a lot of demands on the legal side when our team was reviewing the contract, and our Leave Specialist supported our needs and made sure we stayed on track.”

The solution: Partner with Sparrow for stronger compliance and significant cost savings

By outsourcing leave administration to Sparrow, Zahid and her team have eliminated day-to-day compliance stress and gained back hundreds of hours.

“It’s so nice to know that Sparrow is covering all of our bases compliance-wise,” Zahid said. In addition to staying up to date on individual state leave laws and filing processes, Sparrow also keeps track of deadlines and fills out paperwork for Veho’s benefits team and their employees taking leave.

“We’ve had several employees go out on leave recently, and I had no idea what they were eligible for,” said Zahid. “I didn’t know anything about Connecticut paid family leave, for example, and I wouldn’t have known what to do without Sparrow.”

Sparrow’s leave expertise gives Zahid peace of mind that Veho is in compliance and that employees are well taken care of. “Not only has Sparrow saved us a ton of time, they’ve also saved us money in potential fines for not offering employees the right benefits,” she added

In fact, saving on potential fines is just one small part of Veho’s overall cost savings with Sparrow. “We weren’t able to coordinate with state payments before because we didn’t have the bandwidth,” said Zahid.

“So if an employee lived in a state that offered parental leave or medical leave or disability, we weren’t able to take advantage of those benefits, and we were just providing full salary continuance,” she explained. “Even though it was generous on Veho’s part, we were wasting a lot of money.”

Now, with Sparrow applying for state benefits on Veho’s behalf, Veho can top up their employee salaries instead of paying 100%. “Thanks to Sparrow, in the last six months we’ve saved just shy of $50,000 dollars using wage replacement—and that’s just for parental leaves,” Zahid said. “Our finance team was very happy about that.”

To further support Veho’s finance team, Sparrow sets up automatic payroll calculations for employees taking leave, generates custom payroll reports for Veho, and provides payroll reconciliation assistance.

Compliance and cost-savings weren’t the only factors driving Veho to revamp employee leave. Veho also wanted to “elevate the employee experience when it comes to leaves,” Zahid said.

She and her team have made a point of providing white glove service to Veho employees—and they wanted to maintain that level of care with a third-party provider. “It’s great to be able to pass an employee off to Sparrow, where the Sparrow Leave Specialists will walk them through exactly what they’re entitled to,” she explained. “Plus, we aren’t having to do those intake calls anymore, so that’s saved us a lot of time.”

After Zahid introduces a Veho employee to Sparrow, a Sparrow Leave Specialist reaches out to that employee to set up a one-on-one call, where they’ll explain the filing process step by step, break down the employee’s benefits, and answer questions.

From there, Sparrow Leave Specialists fill out paperwork for Veho employees, liaise with medical providers if need be, and keep track of deadlines.

“Everything we’ve heard from our employees taking leave is positive,” Zahid said. “We’ve heard that the process with Sparrow is really streamlined and thorough, and that the Leave Specialists are really diligent and great.”

Zahid and her team are especially grateful for Sparrow’s hands-on customer service. “We’ve had some challenging employee cases so far, and all of our Sparrow Leave Specialists have handled everything with grace, and have been wonderful to work with,” she said.

“I can’t thank Sparrow enough for sticking with us and handling each case with care and kindness.”

The result: Building a base of care

Sparrow’s end-to-end leave administration services have saved Veho’s benefits team countless hours and compliance headaches, not to mention tens of thousands of dollars a year.

Perhaps more importantly, though, Sparrow has given Zahid and her team more time and brainpower to continue building upon their foundation of employee care.

“We’re excited to revisit our parental leave policy for 2025, and we’re also evaluating what we can potentially add in 2025 as far as benefits goes,” Zahid said. As the company continues growing, she added, so will their employee resources and options.

Simplify leave administration and give employees a white glove experience with Sparrow. Review our offerings or book a demo today.