Posts

The Benefits of Earned Wage Access for Employees

Sponsored by: ADP

Financial stress is a real employee concern these days. Prices are higher across the board – gas, food, and housing. There is also a looming recession on the horizon. So how can employers help alleviate some of this stress? Many are turning to earned wage access benefits. But what is this about? Let’s look closer…

As the modern workplace continues to evolve, so should the ways employees get paid. Many employers now offer employees the option to access their wages at much-needed times through earned wage access benefits, rather than having access to their pay only at the designated pay cycle.

This benefit offers employees much-needed financial flexibility and peace of mind. For employers, it can improve employee retention, satisfaction, and productivity by helping employees redirect their mental focus on work rather than financial stresses.

So, it’s really a win-win for both employees and employers. 

Our Guest:  Michelle Young

On this latest episode of #WorkTrends, I spoke with Michelle Young, Vice President of Operations for ADP’s Employee Financial Solutions Group. Michelle is an innovation expert and a trusted advisor to corporate executives in orchestrating business and fiscal strategies with B2B and B2C models.

Let’s talk about financial wellness. A very hot topic right now. Looking at this through the lens of ADP, how do you define financial wellness in the workplace? Michelle:

That’s a great question and very on point right now. When we at ADP think about financial wellness, we immediately go to the source of pay. That’s where we can promote confidence. We can help our employers offer their employees flexible pay methods that are beyond standard pay cycles. Like earned wage access, which, if you haven’t heard, is a very hot topic right now. It really helps to align unexpected expenses with income.

Reducing Employee Financial Stress

Employees can avoid spending money on overdraft fees, late fees, or even payday loans with earned wage access. And that further increases their ability to save and reduce financial stress. 

Sometimes, when unforeseen expenses don’t align with income, such as a medical bill or a home repair, it can make any employee, even financially responsible ones, feel helpless. And that often directly impacts their performance in the workplace.

What is Earned Wage Access?

What do earned wage access benefits look like? (Or EWA for short.) Let’s talk more about what EWA actually is, and how it works.

Promoting financial wellness ties to our EWA story. So EWA earned wage access is a valuable financial wellness benefit that allows employees to access a portion of their income that they’ve already earned. As opposed to waiting until the next pay cycle.

How Are Employees Using Earned Wage Access?

Employees use their earned wages in various ways, varying by demographic and age segment. 

Employees ages 18 to 24 tend to use it to reduce the stress of not having enough cash until payday. Maybe to buy groceries, pay off a loan, or even rent. As we move up, the 25 to 44-year-olds typically use it for family-related expenses or to pay bills. The 45 to 64-year-olds are also using EWA for emergency-related expenses or paying bills and use it for an emergency medical expense, which typically impacts the Gen Xers and the Boomers with more frequency.

ADP Research Key Takeaways

There were a lot of really juicy findings in the ADP Earned Wage Access Research Study done in December 2021 to January 2021 timeframe, What are some key takeaways? 

There is broad interest in EWA from workers in every age group, every education level. Seventy-six percent of workers across all age groups say it’s important for their employer to offer it. And 82% of employers that don’t offer it are interested in actually offering it. Additionally, 59% of millennials would give priority to a job with an employer that offers earned wage access. And 75% say that the availability of VWA would, in fact, influence their acceptance of a job offer.

 


I hope you found this episode of #WorkTrends helpful, I know I did. To learn more about the EWA metrics, download ADP’s latest white paper: “Earned Wage Access: Tapping into the Potential of Flexible Pay for Today’s World of Work”

Also, I invite you to subscribe to the #WorkTrends episode on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or wherever you tune in to podcasts. And to continue this conversation on social media, be sure to follow TalentCulture or use our #WorkTrends hashtag anytime on TwitterLinkedIn, and Instagram. Let’s talk!

Simply Knock Three Times For Positive Workforce Impact

“Oh, my darling, knock three times
On the ceiling if you want me
Twice on the pipe
If the answer is no…”

Tony Orlando & Dawn

It started with an e-mail. The latest OnStar diagnostic report from our Saturn VUE chock full of data analysis on nearly every single facet of the car: engine and transmission system, air bag system, antilock braking system and more. We had green checkmarks across the board except for one: emissions system.

Argh. Yes, the engine light was on. “How long has the engine light been on?” I asked my wife who usually drives the VUE.

“I don’t know. I think about two weeks,” she answered.

“Wow,” I said.

“What? It’s been running fine.”

“Wow. Those idiot lights,” I added, channeling my father but not referring to my lovely wife.

So I called OnStar and they ran another diagnostic real-time and sure enough the recommendation was to take it in to a GM dealer and have the emissions system checked.

Which is what I did, and when I was getting a shuttle ride back, one of the other passengers, a young lady in her early 20’s, was on the phone with her dad. She said to him, “I have a question.”

I heard her say, “Knock three times? What? That was a song?”

She smiled and laughed and then I said, “Tony Orlando and Dawn.”

She repeated it to her father and then nodded at me. “Yep, that’s what he was just singing to me.”

Funny. It’s not knock four times or three times on the pipe – it’s repetitive precision is exactly how we remember the 1970’s pop hit. At least, those of us who do remember it. All of us have those single sources of musical truths baked into memory banks year after year.

And then it hit me (finally, right?) – the single source has been lost in the fact that since the early 1980’s cars have become more and more computerized, to the point today that data is constantly streaming from cars to servers to diagnostic outputs alerting us to all things that are well and unwell. This is true of most manufactured electronic “things” today that have microprocessors and they can tell both the manufacturers and the consumers exactly what’s going on inside.

This has also been true of finance, sales, marketing, supply chain management software and technology database systems for decades. Business leaders are now demanding the human resources (HR) data and analytics. The talent data and analytics that inform them about recruiting, performance, compensation and learning strategies. The analytics that will drive the enterprise’s workforce strategy and support the financial results the organization wants.

But aggregating and maintaining the sheer volume of workforce data available today, required to maximize that very investment, can be daunting to even the most progressive enterprise. It’s highly complex and costly for large global organizations due to the number of databases and data systems they maintain.

At the very heart of talent analytics is access to clean, collected, and unified workforce data. Early adoption is now occurring in organizations that are organizing and maintaining data so that it is transformed, standardized and reportable, so that they will be able to glean useful information that can in turn lead to measurable improvement in financial performance.

But they’ll need to have a primary data conduit from which HR and other vital business and finance data can flow to and from every internal and external system, all managed in a unified platform – a single source of truth.

How do we get to that single source of big data truth? I asked Marc Rind this question on the TalentCulture #TChat Show. Marc is the VP of Product Development & Chief Data Scientist at ADP and he told us that they’ve been working on a data exchange platform with a very simple API (application programming interface). It allows companies to bring in data assets from other systems and combine them with workforce data in order to bring out valuable insights into the state of their talent and where they’re going.

For example, Marc referenced a healthcare organization that unifies and analyzes their data to identify hiring patterns as well as projecting their overtime and scheduling needs real-time. Their everyday managers can also get the information they need to what their new hire attrition rate is, why it is, how it compares with their competitors, and what they should do to reduce it and be more competitive.

Another example included a retailer trying to understand not just how the sales are going in various locations or store locations, but also understanding how overtime impacts sales and what are the skills they should be hiring for elsewhere and other factors impacting positive outcomes based on those locations that are beating their sales goals. Nice weather plus optimal customer service leads to an extra 10% jump of foot traffic and great sales outdoors versus the mall stores.

These little ditties of insights can and do pay dividends. They are the HR tech pop songs that many providers of unifying platforms and data integration and management solutions are singing today with more to come tomorrow. Companies no longer have to sacrifice their favorite “tunes” – features and functionality – from the best of breed talent management solutions they’ve invested time and money into in exchange for moving to one unified core HR and talent management platform with subpar TM functionality. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Having access to meaningful data standardization and analysis as a single source of business and HR truth leads to strategic reporting and insightful analytics. Both provide critical guidance for organizational decisions, reinforcing the relationships among HR, finance and supply chain management.

So there you go, HR. Simply knock three times for positive workforce impact. After you’ve unified your data, of course.

#TChat Preview: How HR Drives Positive Workforce Impact With The Right Data Insights

The TalentCulture #TChat Show is back live on Wednesday, July 22, 2015, from 1-2 pm ET (10-11 am PT).

Last week we talked about how to build and market your employer brand, and this week we’re going to talk about how HR drives positive workforce impact with the right data insights.

Carpe Diem HR! Time to seize the business day!

HR has more momentum and presence in driving technology decisions than we have seen in years past. So how do we seize the day and innovation to make it impactful to our organizations and workplace?

First HR has to understand the business and the metrics that drive competitive advantage. Across the HCM ecosystem, the right data is key. Asking the business to make decisions based on data insights can be scary if HR doesn’t understand the relevance and credibility of the data.

Join us and learn what data empowers HR to drive tech innovation towards a positive workforce impact.

Sneak Peek:

#TChat Events: How To Build And Market Your Employer Brand

TChatRadio_logo_020813#TChat Radio — Wed, July 22 — 1 pm ET / 10 am PT

Join TalentCulture #TChat Show co-founders and co-hosts Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman as they talk about how HR drives positive workforce impact with the right data insights with this week’s guest: Marc Rind, VP of Product Development & Chief Data Scientist of ADP Analytics and Big Data.

 

Tune in LIVE online Wednesday, July 22

#TChat Twitter Chat — Wed, July 22 — 1:30 pm ET /10:30 am PT Immediately following the radio show, Meghan, Kevin, and Marc will move to the #TChat Twitter stream, where we’ll continue the discussion with the entire TalentCulture community. Everyone with a Twitter account is invited to participate, as we gather for a dynamic live chat, focused on these related questions:

Q1: What empowers HR to drive tech innovation towards a positive workforce impact? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q2: How can HR ensure what data is real & impactful to create a competitive edge? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q3: What examples of organizational data insights can HR leverage? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Until then, we’ll keep the discussion going on the #TChat Twitter feed, our TalentCulture World of Work Community LinkedIn group, and in our TalentCulture G+ community. So feel free to drop by anytime and share your questions, ideas and opinions. See you there!!!

Subscribe to our podcast on BlogTalkRadio, Stitcher or iTunes:

BTR stitcher_logoItunes_podcast_icon

 

 

Join Our Social Community & Stay Up-to-Date!

Passive-Recruiting

Image Credit: Big Stock Images