This new HR tool allows workers to access their pay before payday
Employment Hero has launched InstaPay, a market-first tool giving Australians access to their wages early if needed.
Employment Hero has launched InstaPay, a market-first tool giving Australians access to their wages early if needed.Leading online HR platform Employment Hero has launched a suite of new tools under the name WorkLife, promising to give Australian employees more flexibility and control over their pay. The most notable feature included in WorkLife is InstaPay, an industry-first tool which will enable workers to access their pay early ahead of their designated payday, similar to a salary advance.
Employees can use the Employment Hero app to access InstaPay to see how many approved hours of pay they have accrued and can then choose to access between $100 and $250 ahead of their payday for a fee of $2. Employees will be able to access up to $250 per week, for a flat fee of $2 each time. This isn't a loan or a line of credit, it's giving employees access to their own earned wages at a time that's convenient to them. There's no interest charged on the money and no debt owed.
As well as benefiting employees, InstaPay will not cost employers any more nor will it create any more admin for employers since Employment Hero manages the whole process. Employment Hero will use its own pool of funds to give employees early access to their earned wages. Come payday, employers can simply pay employees as normal and Employment Hero will deduct any amount that the employee has already chosen to receive early and keep that amount in its pool of funds behind the scenes.
The ability for employees to access part of their wages early via InstaPay aims to reduce the number of Australians relying on payday loans and credit cards in order to meet financial commitments while they're waiting to receive their pay. According to research by Employment Hero, over 2.5 million Australian workers have had to take out a payday loan to meet financial demands like power bills and credit card balances, with younger workers the most likely to do so. Over a third of millennials have taken out a loan to meet financial demands.
Founder and CEO at Employment Hero Ben Thompson said, “Technology has allowed us to spend anytime and anywhere, but it hasn’t given us access to our own money any quicker. Instead, Australians have slowly taken on more debt through loans and credit. We want to break this cycle by giving employees access to their own money, when they need it most. On this point, we’ve found that both the prospect of setting your own pay date and tracking spending and savings is especially popular among millennials, who are the future workforce, after all."
WorkLife also offers Savings Hero, a real-time savings dashboard to help employees monitor their savings progress, and Life Hero which offers a range of free content resources to help employees improve their financial literacy. These new tools are available now via the Employment Hero portal for any employee with access to the platform.
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