Sponsored by Branch
The move towards fast, digital payments is evident across industries, but especially in hospitality, with many state regulations now requiring that employees be paid more frequently than every two weeks. (In New York, for example, tip payouts must be made on a weekly basis.)
Offering fast, digital payments is easy to do with paycards, which can not only help your business cut the time and cost of outdated payment methods like cash and paper checks, but offer more robust financial offerings to your entire staff.
What to Look for in a Paycard Solution
Savvy operators know that the big question isn’t if they should launch a paycard solution, but rather, which one is right for their restaurant. Let’s go over what to look for in a paycard solution.
Provides financial services to your entire staff
The need to provide financial services like digital banking, financial wellness tools, and more has become increasingly apparent—especially for workers who may have limited access to financial services to begin with. There are more than seven million U.S. households without a bank account, and many workers who join the hospitality industry may fall into this category, whether that includes younger workers who haven’t had a bank account before or workers with limited documentation for which access to financial services often feels out of reach.
Look for a paycard solution that offers a digital bank account—in addition to a physical paycard—that can support more of your workers, leading to a better payments experience.
Serving unbanked employees was a factor in the search for a new paycard offering for the team at Winger Bros, a restaurant group that owns and operates casual-dining restaurants across several states in the Intermountain region.
“If we have a new hire who is a young person or just doesn’t have a bank account set up yet, they get a [Branch card] and can start getting paid right away,” says Suzy Bronzati, Chief People Officer for Winger Bros.
Plus, digital banking solutions like the Branch App come with financial wellness features such as a savings goal functionality, personalized spending insights, and cashback rewards.
Going above and beyond to provide these benefits is becoming increasingly important to today’s workforce—despite the fact that 77% of workers view financial wellness programs as a key benefit offering, less than one-third of employers offer them, presenting a unique opportunity for your restaurant to make a difference in your employees’ financial wellbeing.
Eliminates fees
Today’s employees want to be able to access their wages and tips instantly, flexibly, and inexpensively. Traditional paycards often come with fees for everything from ATM withdrawals to payday advances to standard ACH transfers.
High paycard fees for employees became a huge drawback for the previous paycard provider that Manna Hospitality Group utilized. Manna’s Vice President of HR, Mary Lazzaroni, was motivated to switch to Branch when she realized how steep the fees of their previous provider were.
“It kept me up at night knowing what our employees were paying in fees with our previous paycard,” says Lazzaroni.“That was so eye-opening; we just knew we had to make a difference and free up those fees for our team.”
Many traditional paycard providers also charge employers as much as $3 per paycheck, which can seriously add up, depending on the size of your staff and the frequency of paychecks.
Ensuring that the paycard you offer makes it easy for employees to find fee-free options is crucial if you want to provide a positive payments experience. Especially if you’re also choosing to include earned wage access (EWA) or on-demand pay, make sure the solution you choose provides free options for workers to access their earnings.
Ease of implementation
Lastly, a paycard solution is only beneficial if people can actually use it. Look for a paycard provider that can support a smooth transition to digital payments, allowing for self-onboarding and an easy integration into your current payroll systems
Ideally, your provider will designate a customer success point of contact to guide you through the process and get you and your team up and running swiftly. The implementation should include personalized paycards for existing employees, a stack of instant-issue paycards (for new hires waiting for personalized cards), plus training materials, enrollment forms, co-marketing support, and more.
Finding the paycard solution that benefits your business and your staff
No matter your type of foodservice operation—a quick-service chain, a handful of fast-casual concepts, a multi-unit family dining restaurant—ensuring that you have a paycard solution in place that truly benefits your workforce can help you recruit and retain more top talent, keeping operations running smoothly.
>Learn more about how Branch can help your business.