Switching to Flexible On-Demand Pay Provides an Engaging Employee Experience for Wendy’s Fast-Food Workers

Partner: Primary Aim, LLC. 
US Headquarters: Zanesville, Ohio 
Industry: Restaurant/ Fast Food/Beverage 
Number of Employees: 2,400+ 
Payroll Platform: Paylocity 
Time & Attendance Platform: RTI

Jasna Keller, HR Director of Primary Aim, is responsible for the benefits, recruiting, staffing and employee support for 2400+ employees. Primary Aim, which is headquartered in Zanesville, Ohio, is a franchisee of 76 Wendy’s restaurants across Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Jasna was looking for a way to help the company retain and attract new employees. Here is what she had to say about harnessing the power of a pay experience for her employees: 

Prior to implementing DailyPay, we worked with another on-demand pay provider. With that provider, we were responsible for pre-funding and reconciling every employee transfer, which was an overwhelming and time-consuming process. In addition, the provider limited the percentage of earned wages that employees were able to transfer each day, which employees generally did not like. We worked with the other provider in a handful of restaurants for about six months. After that short period of time, we realized that the reconciliation process was not scalable to fit our large organization. That’s when we reached out to DailyPay. 

Our reasons for choosing DailyPay included several factors. There was no pre-fund requirement for employee transfers, no need to reconcile transactions and employee transfer amounts were not limited. 

Although I knew our employees would be thrilled with no limits on their transfers, as the HR Director, I had some concerns. I was fearful that some employees would transfer all their money and then be disinterested in coming to work the next day. However, I was pleasantly surprised this did not turn out to be the case. About 30% of our employees are utilizing the program responsibly and consistently, with no increase in absenteeism or call-offs. We continue to educate our employees on the benefits of DailyPay though our CREW APP, our internal social media platform. 

DailyPay has improved our employees’ pay experience, and they love seeing their Pay Balance in the app and being able to transfer whatever they need, whenever they need it. The experience has been great so far, and the team at DailyPay has been very supportive and responsive any time we’ve brought an issue to their attention. 

One of the reasons we chose an on-demand pay benefit was because it not only was a way to stand out from our competition, but also because we recognized that technology was advancing and, eventually, employees would expect to get paid this way. To be the employer of choice, we wanted to be the leader in this new, modern way to pay. 

DailyPay helps our employees meet their financial obligations between paychecks, whether it’s for food, essential household items or transportation needs. During the COVID-19 shutdown, DailyPay supported our employees by waiving all next-day transfer fees. This allowed our employees quick and free access to their wages during those difficult and uncertain times. We were very grateful for the support they extended to us. 

Since implementing DailyPay and advertising it as a benefit in our recruiting materials, we have increased the number of applications we receive for open roles. Prospective employees are excited to have access to such a useful and unique benefit. 

I would recommend DailyPay to other companies who are looking to improve their benefits packages and increase their employee satisfaction. It has been a great benefit that required a modest amount of time to implement and requires a minimal amount of time to maintain. Our employees love the financial security it provides and we love being able to help them without adding any extra work to our very full plates. I would definitely recommend DailyPay to leaders at any company who want to make similar improvements!