By Tal Clark
For us it’s not a luxury, it’s an expectation. EWA has become a standard in the QSR industry.
– Christy Wasdin | Director, Payroll & HRIS, GPS Hospitality
National Payroll Week is Upon Us
While Labor Day has passed, and with it, the final days of summer, the U.S. holiday designed to honor workers also kicks off National Payroll Week, dedicated to celebrating America’s employees and the payroll professionals who pay them.
To recognize payroll professionals and help organizations understand how to respond to the new job and payment requirements of the post-pandemic workforce, we are highlighting the ways that on-demand pay both supports payroll departments, and also delivers on the employee payment preferences revealed in our recent Wages and Wellbeing study.
Pandemic Payroll Problems
Payroll professionals had to react quickly to the workforce changes brought on by Covid-19 in the last two and half years, and they’ve continued to work to establish policies to protect their operations. Despite concerns about the economy, Americans are still quitting their jobs at a record pace, increasing the volume of payroll labor caused by turnover and giving job seekers greater power than ever before.
Findings from our Wages and Wellbeing study show that 79% of working Americans are more interested in applying for a job that pays them the same day they work – 30% higher than in 2018. Additionally, more than half (56%) of working Americans would stay a month to over a year longer at a job if they could get immediate access to their earned pay after each day’s work at no cost, ultimately saving employers thousands of dollars annually in hiring costs.
Industry Innovators
Even before the pandemic driven changes of today’s workforce, one of EWA’s earliest adopters was GPS Hospitality. After meeting with Instant, they immediately saw the benefits of EWA and knew it would be a great offering for their more than 10,000 employees.
“As a core benefit for our people, it was very important to GPS that this did not burden our employees with unnecessary fees or costs like a lot of the EWA offerings do,” explained Christy Wasdin, director of payroll and HRIS at GPS Hospitality.
In addition to being fee-free for employees and employers, Instant Pay seamlessly maps to any existing payroll ecosystem and the only thing required to enroll employees and deliver EWA is a simple report from the payroll and time system.
“Payroll is a finicky beast,” said Wasdin. “Having access to something like EWA takes a lot of pressure off the payroll department when there is a problem.”
ROI Through Recruitment and Retention
Turnover in the quick-service restaurant industry has historically run higher than other hospitality segments, averaging around 150% even before the challenges of the pandemic. And while the industry as a whole has not seen much improvement in the last couple years, Wasdin says GPS data shows that employees who utilize the Instant offers have a longer tenure than those who do not.
An Instant data report from 2021 showed that companies that offer EWA benefit from an average 27% reduction in turnover. Further, there is a direct correlation between the number of EWA payments that an employee receives and their tenure. According to our analysis, employees taking 8+ Instant Pays stay 2-3x longer at their jobs than employees who only receive standard two- week paychecks.
Access to wages on-demand is becoming more in-demand than ever before. Download ourWages & Wellbeing study to learn more about the changing requirements of today’s evolving workforce, or schedule a demo today.
