REWARD
from the embarrassing phone calls to HR to ask for an advance on those occasions when there was more month than money. We launched in our care homes and retirement villages in 2019 and enrolment was robust from day one. Around 70% of our colleagues have the app but only one in four are using this to access funds. Most of the application traffic is to review accruing funds for completed shifts; this in itself is proving to be a stress reliever, providing employees with visibility of ‘just in case’ cash flow. Another important aspect of the application was the knowledge hub, full of educational content. We had significantly underestimated the hunger for improved understanding of personal finances, a need which was made clear in the first month with over 10,000 articles read by our people. As 2020 came around, we: l rolled out to all our UK colleagues l introduced special treatment for overtime hours to encourage take-up of additional shifts l launched companion savings products. This was all while monitoring usage and other indicators. Of course, we can’t talk about 2020 without reflecting on the impacts of Covid-19 restrictions. The care home sector was put under immense pressure, looking after clinically vulnerable residences through the efforts of a dedicated workforce who were in no way immune to the lockdown implications. Through access to flexible pay and the ability to instantly stream cash, we were able to remove three important barriers to maintaining household cash flow. Firstly, colleagues with multiple jobs were routinely visiting multiple care settings, posing a significant risk to infection control. We were able to retain the additional hours in the homes and minimise cross- contamination, through improving access to pay for overtime shifts which could be paid when needed or wanted. Secondly, working with Wagestream, we were able to add sick pay to the app, so colleagues testing positive during the lockdown period could access their sick pay on demand and wouldn’t be financially worse off for isolating. Thirdly, we could push hardship money to a household within hours of the need being assessed.
pillar of our employee benefits. Our starting point was identifying the employee (and employer) need and working forward from there. This also helped immensely in providing a compelling narrative to the business case. There were some initial perception barriers with our senior sponsors, so understanding the key drivers of financial behaviours in different demographics also helped. Socio-economic bias is unhelpful but also unintentional, so be brave enough to trust that your people can make the right choices for themselves and focus your efforts on providing them with the opportunities to make those choices. “We had significantly underestimated the hunger for improved understanding of personal finances, a need which was made clear in the first month Set your guard rails; define what success looks like for your organisation We were clear on the positive outcome we wanted from this tool. We wanted to support our people in managing the inconvenience of a fluctuating monthly net pay, reduce money worries in the workplace and encourage take-up of discretionary shifts. There was a perceived risk of overdrawing, leaving no pay at the end of the month, so we intentionally kept the percentage available low (40%). We were also keen to identify embryonic misuse early and wanted to actively monitor any worsening of financial health. We did this through crafting a suite of key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure each aspect and to compare this to expected outcomes. For example, we expected flexible access to pay to increase in five-week months, as there was with over 10,000 articles read by our people”
longer to wait between pay packets and this often resulted in stressed cash flow. That is exactly what we experienced in the statistics, validating this use case. Technology is key We approached the vendor selection as if we were buying payroll software, focussing on the ability to move personal data and money around safely. This meant our procurement scorecard was technology- led, focussing on application reliability, data protection, system availability and integration capability. Fundamentally, this led to an agile partnership, which could respond to changing need – especially during the pandemic. Provide the empowerment In-work poverty is on the rise in the UK and money worries are the number one cause of stress in the workplace. More and more, workplaces are seen as key support systems, ahead of traditional systems of family, faith and the state, and employee expectations have evolved since the pandemic. Financial well-being as defined by the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) is “feeling secure and in control. It’s about making the most of your money from day to day, dealing with the unexpected and being on track for a healthy financial future. In short: financially resilient, confident and empowered.” Therefore, it follows that providing access to wages to deal with the unexpected serves one aspect and is an important facet of a comprehensive financial wellness suite. Equal care needs to be given to managing medium-term financial goals (for example, building a savings cushion) and accruing funds for long-term financial goals, like home ownership or retirement. My personal take on POD On a personal note, amidst the technology logistics, establishing a new partnership and embedding a new benefit, this was fundamentally a courageous programme of activity which required a leap of faith. Even now, I still get emotional when someone tells me how this tool has changed their life. There are too many very human stories to pay it justice; from how being able to get wages on demand kept the bills paid after a family breakdown, to the proud declaration of ‘I have savings now.’ n
Key considerations
Know your people; know your purpose Earned wage access is a now an integral
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| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
Issue 99 | April 2024
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