How to help improve talent acquisition and retention with flexible pay
To compete for talent, even during times of disruption and uncertainty, you need to ensure that your HR team has every recruitment and retention tool at their disposal. One such tool that can help position your organization above others is earned wage access (EWA). As the name implies, EWA allows employees to access a portion of the wages they’ve earned outside the bounds of typical payroll cycles.
But what makes for a successful EWA program? We believe it starts with being SMART. In other words, your EWA should be:
- Strategic so that it’s aligned with your recruiting and employee retention efforts.
- Measurable so that you can set realistic expectations around its impact on your operations.
- Achievable so you scale your efforts to achieve the results you’re looking for.
- Realistic so it aligns with current company and market conditions.
- Timely so you can quickly implement a program that supports your recruiting and retention goals.
Meeting these criteria often starts with finding the right EWA partner. When evaluating providers, consider the following:
- Is the program compliant?
To help mitigate compliance risks, look for solution providers that do not disguise loans as EWA or debit employee bank accounts. - Can my employees continue using EWA even if my organization switches payroll providers?
Choose a solution provider that can work with any payroll system and is flexible enough to adapt to changes to your payroll platform or processes without any disruption. - Can employees send funds to any destination account of their choosing?
Programs that require a particular pay card or prepaid card may subject users to fees when moving funds off the card and to a different account. Any such fees should be clearly communicated and understood. - Do employees need to engage with the payroll department to initiate an EWA transfer?
Employee requests for earned wages should not impact your payroll operation or result in payroll processing changes that require intervention from your payroll team. - Does the EWA solution provider offer financial wellness and budgeting tools?
Beyond access to pay, an EWA program should focus on helping employees achieve financial stability with features that facilitate saving and budgeting.
