A New Way Forward

By Jon Lowe 

This month marks four years since the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Four years ago, almost feels like a lifetime. Often, you hear people talk about the comparison “before COVID” and “post COVID.” Emerging from those very dark times, many of us took the opportunity to have a “life reset” and reevaluate many aspects of our lives, from how we live to how we work. We took a moment to make changes… changes for good.

Like most HR professionals at the time, there was no playbook for managing a team during a global health crisis. The safety and health of our team members became our top priority. For the first time, this notion of flexibility and work-life balance morphed from a nice perk to an essential one. Whether you needed the flexibility to work from home or needed flexible hours to care for young kids, it became critical to build the needs of our team members into the calculus of what work looks like to ensure they bring their best selves to work every day.

That concept hasn’t changed for me since those dark days in 2020. I believe it’s critical we continue to lead with empathy and understanding as it relates to the needs of our workers.  What can we do as HR leaders to help strengthen that bond with our team members to show that, just like we did four years ago, we are here to help provide employees with the opportunity to be their best every day? It’s about empowerment. Empower employees with the tools and technology they need to live the life they want and actively remove friction points where they exist.

I’m fortunate to currently work for a mission-driven company where the ideals of uplifting employees to be their best version of themselves are baked into the corporate DNA. At DailyPay, we partner with the country’s most forward-thinking companies to offer a financial wellness benefit and work tech platform that is both empowering and uplifting while providing the flexibility workers crave in a post-pandemic world. With increased choice and control over their pay through earned wage access, employees can pay bills on time, make the purchases they need to, and save for the future–all at the press of a button. They now have the flexibility and empowerment to tackle the realities of an evolving reality of work, where income often comes from multiple sources, expenses are unpredictable, and managing their finances in a way that is best for themselves and their families is more fraught than ever.

Best of all, it exemplifies the commitment employers have for the well-being of their team members. A research study from Arizent/Employee Benefits News on the current state of financial wellness benefits shows that 90% of employers care about the financial wellness of their staff. They know that an employee who is stressed about money is unlikely to bring their best version of themselves to work every day. So, the onus is upon us to continue to challenge the status quo in the pursuit of creating value, removing barriers, and alleviating friction for our employees. This requires us to find creative solutions and arm our employees with work tech tools that will aid them in navigating an evolving world of work thus helping them stay financially solvent and avoid the vicious cycle of debt.

Four years ago, earned wage access became a must-have benefit so employees could have the liquidity and flexibility they so desperately needed to make purchases – from medicine to toilet paper – to survive during the outset of the pandemic. 

Four years later, that empowerment and flexibility over their pay is something employees expect. 

Four years ago, we changed the way we lived and worked for good. Now it’s time we changed pay for good.