Hi is a social enterprise fintech that enables businesses to unlock working capital by financing their payroll. This means that, without adding debt, companies can now access fast, affordable funds to grow or optimise their finances.
At the same time, Hi gives employees free, flexible access to their earned wages, whenever they want it. This increases their financial resilience by balancing their cashflow and removing the feast-and-famine cycle of monthly payday. As an employee benefit this can help your business attract and retain the best talent, increasing attendance, retention and productivity.
Can real-time access to pay help with the cost-of-living crisis?
Absolutely. From energy bills to petrol pump prices, groceries and council tax to mobile phones and broadband, households are facing huge increases in expenditure.
As a result, people are increasingly relying on credit cards, payday loans and buy now pay later financing schemes to make ends meet while they wait to get paid at the end of the month.
Monthly payroll became popular for many reasons, greater predictability of cash flow, reduced administration, reduced costs, and later, the efficiencies of digital pay. But all these benefits favour the employer, not the employee. And monthly payroll is now so ingrained into our lives that we don’t question it.
But people should be able to freely access their money and be paid when they want it.
This will improve financial wellbeing with access to pay on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis at the discretion of the employee. It also enables people to have more control over cash flow thus reducing the need for short-term debt. People can also access real-time wage updates, helping them to budget.
Wages are an asset that belongs to the employee and, against the backdrop of the cost-of-living crisis, isn’t it time we drop the concept of the monthly paycheque?
What are the benefits of giving employees real-time access to their salary for employers?
Workplace benefits are a significant point of differentiation for employers. Caring for the financial and mental well-being of employees, whether it is through changing how employees are paid or providing other benefits, is crucial to attracting and retaining talent.
Real-time salary access can be a key draw when it comes to employee benefits as 61% of workers find it appealing to have instant access to their earned wages.
Furthermore, 94% of employees worry about money and 77% say this affects their work. Offering more frequent pay to employees has the potential to attract and retain talent, enhance employee wellbeing, improve productivity and reduce absenteeism.
In addition to helping organisations attract and retain talent, Hi also helps companies unlock affordable working capital by letting them finance payroll, a first from Hi. This releases a new source of working capital for businesses, which they can use to optimise cashflow without adding debt to their balance sheet. So, it’s a win-win, for both the employee and employer.
What’s next for Hi?
We have big ambitions at Hi. Having partnered with Mastercard to launch our salary access card and recently joined its prestigious Start Path engagement programme, we are looking to scale our business globally.
Our Series A funding round will enable us to activate the next stage of our growth plan to expand across the US, Europe and Asia, while continuing to develop our products and services.
