Hospices Embrace ‘Same-Day Pay’ to Boost Retention

What some hospices are referring to as “on-demand payroll systems” have become a way for employers to get creative financially without stretching their bottom lines too thin.

Through these systems, staff can view and access their earnings in real-time, prior to traditional payroll days.

With inflation and gas prices soaring, giving employees flexibility in receiving their wages has become vital, according to Jessica Lewis, executive director of human resources for Mississippi-based Singer River Health System. Singer River owns Hospice of Light, which has two locations in the state.

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“We recently began using an on-demand payroll system, and our employees are truly embracing it,” Lewis told Hospice News. “They’re really utilizing it to help them get from point A to point B between paychecks to get things like gas, food and just paying their basic bills. No matter their economic status, everyone is struggling with inflation right now. The system gives them flexibility to not just access their money sooner, but also find extra shifts available when supplement pay is needed.”

More than 50% of Singer’s employees have said accessing their money sooner rather than later has been helpful, Lewis continued.

With health care workers of all stripes leaving the field in record numbers, retention requires more than a “one-size-fits-all” approach to compensation, according to Susan Ponder-Stansel, president and CEO of Florida-based Alivia Care.

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Accommodating early compensation has been a driver for retention among younger workers in particular, with many seeking some type of daily-pay arrangement in which they can receive earnings closer to the time they worked, Ponder-Stansel recently told Hospice News. Sometimes, this flexibility is a higher priority for employees than total compensation or higher wages, she stated.

Recent data bear this out. Employers who implement a flexible payroll period retain staff up to 73% longer than those who don’t, according to research from the financial services company DailyPay. DailyPay provides payroll services to health care and hospice employers nationwide. Through the system, hospice employees can tap into their earnings early for a small fee.

Quick access to pay and diversified compensation methodologies play a “big role” in terms of hospice competition for staff recruitment and retention, according to Jeanniey Walden, global chief innovation and marketing officer of DailyPay.

“From a competitive standpoint, offering daily pay can help to attract the workforce faster and longer,” Walden told Hospice News. “If people have a choice between two different hospice companies where one is going to give them access to their pay as they earn it and the other will make them wait two or three weeks to get their paycheck, most will choose the former.”

Hospices need to be nimble when it comes to tailoring their payment processes around employee priorities while also keeping an eye on the full impact of any initiatives on their financial health, according to Kevin Childs, cofounder and practice leader at CareXM.

Staffing costs are the “single, most expensive aspect” of the hospice business, said Childs during a recent Hospice News webinar. Hospices should be mindful to ensure that their timing for paying wages correlates to the reimbursement they recieve for patient care, lest staffing costs eat further into their revenue.

While no single “silver bullet” exists, hospices could benefit from engaging with employees to determine what they value most, Walden continued.

While higher wages, benefits and compensation timing are all important, so is a need to weigh their personal needs — such as stipends or benefits for child or pet care and timely travel reimbursement, she added.

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