Sustainability: Social, Economic, and Environmental

Continuing PayActiv’s July Theme, there are three other categories of sustainability, which PayActiv refers to as SEE Sustainability.

SEE is an acronym for Social, Economic, and Environmental, the forms of “traditional” sustainability that we’ve heard so much about in recent years.

Here is what each of those terms means to PayActiv.

Social Sustainability

Human sustainability naturally results in social sustainability, as expressed in our metaphor regarding the body and its members.  With improvement in workers’ economic stability, natural improvements follow, including enhanced social and health equity.  

Our end users report holistic changes in their lives, including but not limited to:

• Reduced use of payday loans
• Reduction and/or elimination of financial stress
• Increased peace of mind
• More time for themselves, their family, and their children
• Ability to pursue and refine new skill sets to become eligible for higher paying jobs and positions.
• Healthier eating habits
• Improved self-esteem
• Enhanced engagement at work
• Personal growth

All of these are central to enhanced quality of life, mutual social support, family and community development, and strengthen the foundation of the American landscape.  The hourly worker is akin to the blood surging through the veins of society.  Without the ability to efficiently and properly perform – deliver oxygen, if you will – the body will fail.

Economic Sustainability

In 2019, PayActiv was able to put more than $240 million back into the hands of its end users, by removing the “fix-tax”, enhancing each user’s economic status, and permitting them to sustain both their personal economic situation and that of the nation.

Businesses have saved over $700 million in turnover-related expenses.  Earned Wage Access and holistic financial wellness translates into a 36% increase in retention, according to a Harvard-Kennedy study.  That capital remains inside the company, allowing it to grow, and spend more into the overall economy.  That, in turn, translates to improved net income for our 1,000 employer partners.

Offering PayActiv as an employee benefit is giving employers an advantage in recruiting. 

One QSR HR manager summarized the experiences of countless employer partners:  “Staffing has been an issue in the QSR industry lately and everybody is competing for the same employee. Payactiv gives us one more thing to differentiate us from our competition. Early access to pay may be the deciding factor of where an applicant decides to work.” 

Environmental Sustainability

As much as awareness exists towards caring for our environment, there is a simple truth: if one cannot care for oneself, one cannot care for others, much less the environment.  That’s why the airlines tell us that, in an emergency we should adjust our mask first, then help our child.

Gallup conducts monthly polls on the issues that matter most to Americans.  The environment never polls higher than 5%, and is currently 1%. 

Individuals must first feel secure before pursuing other endeavors.  Family comes first, followed by community, followed by society-at-large.  Environmental sustainability is on the menu for PayActiv primarily as enhanced awareness, as hourly workers emerge from their stressful lives and begin to attend to the world around them.

B-Corp Status

The other element about SEE Sustainability is that these philosophies are directly actionable.  As such PayActiv decided long ago to become both a B-Corporation and Public Benefit Corporation.  The company exists not merely to fulfill fiduciary duties to shareholders or seek profits, but to engage in responsible behavior that better our communities.