Payactiv’s zero-cost benefit creates opportunities for workers to fully engage in their work and lives. Offering access to financial services that improve the quality of life, in turn, helps companies increase employee engagement, productivity, and retention.

We’re happy to present this pre-recorded spotlight session with Payactiv Chief Customer Officer Sabina Bhatia and Benefitfocus Director, Customer Success Support Christy Luykenaar.

This presentation was first delivered at Benefitfocus One Place on March 2, 2021.

Read the highlights

Sabina Bhatia: Welcome to the spotlight session. I am Sabina Bhatia. I spearhead customer experience at Payactiv. Today, I am fortunate enough to have our champion and Director of Customer Support, Christy Luykenaar from Benefitfocus to join me.

Sabina Bhatia: Let’s start by discussing what is Payactiv. We are a financial wellness platform that gives employees on-demand access to their earned, but unpaid wages. Now, think about your lower-wage worker. I’m talking about a worker that makes under $25 an hour. They come in, they punch in, they work their shift, and they punch out. Now, do they get paid for that shift that day? No, they have to wait a week, two weeks, sometimes longer to get paid when payroll is processed. This lack of liquidity between the pay period is what creates your financially stressed worker.

Sabina Bhatia: Financially stressed? Why? Because they have bills to pay between pay periods. They need gas money to get to work. Sometimes they just need money for emergencies, for childcare, all those crazy things that happen between pay periods. And, when they don’t have access to that liquidity and they have to wait to get paid they end up paying overdraft fees. They don’t show up at work. They’re disengaged. So it’s a tough situation for this lower-wage worker.

Let your employees access the money they’ve earned when they need it.

Sabina Bhatia: We at Payactiv believe, why should they have to wait? They’ve earned it. If they need it, they should be able to access it. So, what Payactiv has created is a technology platform that converts time into money. You come in, you complete your hours and we will give you instant access to those earned but unpaid wages to take care of your short-term liquidity needs. But, we’ve considered every aspect of the workers’ daily life for long-term financial wellbeing.

Sabina Bhatia: On our platform, workers can get access to their earned but unpaid wages, and they can pay bills. They have access to financial counseling, savings, budgeting tools, RX discounts, and financial literacy. You don’t have gas money? Don’t worry about an Uber account, you can grab an Uber from our platform and get to work. That being said, we are a B2B company. So, we understand we have to show a measurable impact on the business bottom line to get an opportunity to serve these employers.

Sabina Bhatia: But, I’m not going to take the limelight away from Christy here. Tell us a little bit about the impact that you have seen Payactiv make on the business bottom line.

Financial wellness benefits for employers

Christy Luykenaar: For reference, my previous employer was a global company with approximately 30,000 employees, spanned the US, many states. One of my tasks at the time was to source out a benefit that would appeal to the majority of that workforce, have very little financial impact on the company and ultimately reduce attrition. Our annualized attrition was super high, and this is a challenge that all of those companies deal with on an annualized basis. We needed to improve our daily productivity rates as well.

Christy Luykenaar: Long story short, I found Payactiv, and not only was Payactiv a perfect match for our employee base as being this true benefit, that anybody can access at any time, for any reason. It was actually zero cost to our company. A huge win for us.

Reduce attrition and increase productivity

Christy Luykenaar: There were several quantifiable metrics that we watched over the next two years as we launched Payactiv at our company. First off, our annualized attrition. So, within that population of folks who signed up for the Payactiv benefit or accessed their earned wages in that two-year period, we saw improved annualized attrition by 40%.

Christy Luykenaar: I know you’ve seen this in your other customers as well, Sabina. We also measured productivity in the form of unplanned shrink. So, the population of folks who use the Payactiv app, it’s easy, right? Because they’ve got the app right there and they can see their earned income daily based on the hours that they’re working. This particular group had a higher propensity to report to work, not call out, leave early, or have unexpected absenteeism rates. We were really happy to see that.

Christy Luykenaar: Finally something that we weren’t expecting, and this was just a bonus measurement, but our employee net promoter satisfaction rating improved for this group. So again, that same population who utilized or signed up for Payactiv took the eNPS survey and had an astonishing net promoter score of 75. That’s 75% likelihood that they would recommend our company as a place to work. Whereas our non-Payactiv group’s eNPS ranged somewhere between 15 and 30. So really just another amazing metric, something that all companies look forward to in their eNPS scores. And again, an added benefit that we weren’t really anticipating.

Sabina Bhatia: Thank you, Christy. Whether you’re a restaurant that wants to pay tips to their employees, whether you’re a retailer where workers make commissions, whether you’re looking for a payroll card solution. Whatever it might be Payactiv has a solution for the business at zero cost.

Sabina Bhatia: Today we are serving over 1,500 businesses and more importantly, serving more than 4 million users. And, Christy, you talked about eNPS scores, our Payactiv employee score today is 84.7. At the end of the day, we take care of the users. We take care of the employees and Christy, today at Benefitfocus, you are the voice of millions of users. So, tell us a little bit about what are you hearing every day in your job at Benefitfocus that the audience should hear? What do the clients need and how can Payactiv serve those employees? Take it on Christy.

Financial wellness benefits for workers

Christy Luykenaar: Here at Benefitfocus, our benefit administrators assist employees with many matters. And, of course, we go through our annual open enrollment season where employees are looking to make their health plan decisions for the year, but there are many moments that matter throughout the year. We like to say “moments that matter” here at Benefitfocus because they’re important to us. And these moments are where we engage with that employee.

Christy Luykenaar: During open enrollment, the employee has that window, usually it’s about two to four weeks where they’re starting to elect the variety of health plans, and they have some special benefits. I like to say Payactiv is one of these special benefits because not only can the employee sign up at any time during the year, they don’t need a qualifying life event. They don’t have to have a particular window of time. It’s not this “Elect it or lose it” option. So, it’s just a very special benefit.

Christy Luykenaar: I have personally witnessed Payactiv come to the financial rescue for hundreds of my employees who were impacted unexpectedly by a personal matter or a natural disaster crisis. Over the years, I saw firsthand how being able to access earned wages helped to prevent further stress and hardship for my employees. I was really thankful as an employer that this benefit was there for them. We didn’t offer employee advances and I know payday loans are always an issue for people. It was a blessing to see that they got their funds when they needed them the most and they didn’t have to ask me.

Christy Luykenaar: In the world of benefits administration, we work with all kinds of life events and that’s everything from childbirth to marriage. Loss of coverage is a big one, but many monumental events where finances could be challenged. So, in these conversations, if Payactiv is an option in that employer suite of benefits, we can always remind that employee that they have access to their earned income instantly without having to struggle or wait until that scheduled payday. This is a helpful benefit. It’s there for you when you need it the most and it’s at your discretion.

Christy Luykenaar: It’s simple, it’s impactful, and has many other perks. I’ve been there and seen this work. So for example, we have many employees who will call us who are literally standing there in their pharmacy, getting their prescriptions, waiting to pick up their medicine. And, it would be really nice to show that employee, that their Payactiv benefit comes with this RX discount right there at their drug store at typically somewhere between a 10% and 20% discount.

A simple and impactful solution

Sabina Bhatia: Thank you so much, Christy. The best thing for the audience is to hear it from you. You’ve experienced it in your previous employer. You’re experiencing it today from the voice of the employees. So, just to summarize, Payactiv is zero cost to the employer. And we actually have a zero-cost solution for the employees. One other important point I want to mention and a lot of clients appreciate that, and that is that we are a certified B Corp. This means for us purpose and profit are equally important. To add to that, during the pandemic, which started a little earlier than March 2020, we actually formed a 401-C3, the Payactiv Access Foundation. The main purpose of the foundation is to support families and their livelihood needs. We are here to support you.

Sabina Bhatia: A lot of clients like Walmart, Wayfair, IBEX, Alorica, some of the largest hospital systems, restaurant franchises are here supporting Payactiv and offering Payactiv to the employees to see that measurable impact.

Learn more about restaurant franchises.