Can the hospitality industry become more hospitable to its own workers?
In the midst of an ongoing labor shortage, Atrium Hospitality — a third-party hotel management group that operates Hilton, IHG and Marriott properties — has been seeking new ways to attract and retain talent. The organization recently started offering DailyPay's earned wage access (EWA) to its 7,000 employees, betting that giving workers on-demand access to wages will breed fresh loyalty.
"Our story is very similar to the rest of the hospitality industry: we have experienced significant talent shortages," says Anneliesse Cooper, SVP of HR at Atrium, noting particular trouble hiring for housekeeping and culinary roles. As Atrium has expanded its
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Earned wage access is an employer-provided benefit that gives workers instant access to money they've earned, eliminating the delays of a
"Employees were looking to employers for household stability, especially as maybe a roommate or a spouse or a significant other was experiencing a 40% pay cut or even job loss," says Jeanniey Walden, DailyPay's CMO. "Employers had to, overnight, reinvent the way they do business, and giving workers access to their pay was a way to help them
DailyPay's app shows employees their earnings in real-time; if needed, they can instantly access that money by moving it to a debit or checking account — if a worker earned $100 in a given day, no waiting two weeks until payday for the ability to access that cash. The company's internal research has shown that employees will stay with a company up to 72% longer if their employer offers EWA.
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"This is not a loan — this is something that saves you from paying late fees, overdraft fees and high interest rates on payday loans," Walden says. "To give people benefits they find valuable and tangible from the first day they start working, you've got a greater likelihood of attracting them and keeping them. Work today, get paid today. That makes a difference."
In addition to creating an immediate financial cushion for users, DailyPay also aims to provide long-term stability, and encourages users to build up their savings in three ways: By giving them the freedom to move small amounts of each day's pay into savings; from rounding up when they pay bills to save extra cents on the dollar; and by allowing them to schedule savings, such as automatically moving $20 to a savings account each time they make $300.
"From there, we can use those habits to let an employer know if their workforce is saving money but not contributing to their
Despite its benefits, EWA is still not a widely-available perk for most workers, and getting employees to embrace it and utilize it will require thoughtful communication from employers.
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"Especially in the hotel industry, earned wage access isn't widely available, so a benefit of partnering with DailyPay has been the different options they've provided for communication," Cooper says. "Whether email, newsletters, flyers in back-of-house areas, verbal communications during meetings and associate standups, we've been able to really leverage their packaged education across all internal communication channels."
Cooper says that adopting the app as a benefit has had no impact on Atrium's cash flow, and the implementation and onboarding process was simple for the employer as well as its workforce.
"We're one of the largest hotel operators in our country, and some of our employees are experiencing difficult times," she says. "This benefit offers flexibility to employees, and gives them a bit more control of their earnings on a day to day basis."
