Wage advance — also known as instant pay or earned wage access — is a new and growing benefit category that allows hourly employees to receive advances on wages they’ve already earned but that haven’t yet been paid out. This way, they don’t need to wait for the two-week pay cycle to be compensated for hours they’ve already worked; they’re able to access the money immediately. An employee can clock out at noon and get their eligible day’s wages to pay for lunch, if they so choose. These advances are then deducted from their next paycheck, all through a convenient digital solution.

Wage advance empowers workers with greater liquidity so they can live their lives and cover their expenses without having to borrow from predatory payday lenders. And for businesses, offering instant pay has been shown to increase employee productivity, reduce turnover, and help a company stand out from the competition and become an employer of choice.

The most efficient and effective way for a business to introduce an earned wage access program is by partnering with a third-party provider that specializes in this area. But there are a range of provider options out there, so what should you look for to ensure that you’re choosing the right one?

1. It’s free.

A good wage advance solution should be completely free to both employers and employees. It shouldn’t cost your business anything to make instant pay available to your workers, and it shouldn’t cost your workers to take advantage of the feature.

Payday loan fees and hidden banking fees are some of the chief reasons why so many hourly employees are financially insecure. The point of wage advance is to give them quick, easy access to cash they’ve already earned, not to charge them extra for it. A provider that’s truly dedicated to employees’ financial well-being will make sure users never have to pay for the right to access wages they’ve worked hard for.

2. It integrates with your workforce management system.

Instant pay shouldn’t be a headache for your business; it should be fast and convenient to implement. An ideal wage advance solution should integrate smoothly and seamlessly with your existing workforce management system and payroll platform, so you don’t have to expend unnecessary time and effort on getting them in sync.

The third-party provider can advance your employees’ wages and deduct from their paychecks accordingly, all based on their time and attendance data, without requiring any changes to your current payroll process.

In fact, earned wage access can even help you save on check-cutting costs. Employers spend an average of $4.43 per employee, per pay period, on processing and printing paper checks. Electronic payment significantly reduces this expense.

3. It promotes overall financial health.

Finally, a wage advance provider should do more than just facilitate instant pay; they should support workers’ overall financial health. This can be achieved by offering employees fee-free digital bank accounts, both for spending and for saving, and by enabling automatic reminders to encourage users to set aside money for savings. The ultimate goal isn’t simply to give workers quick access to cash, although that’s crucial to helping them cover emergency expenses; it’s about promoting true financial freedom and peace of mind.

To this end, Attendance on Demand is proud to be partnering with Clair, a social impact fintech startup, to bring free wage advances and greater financial security to today’s hardworking but economically imperiled hourly employees.

Attendance on Demand offers leading workforce management solutions for your organization. Learn more and request a demo today at attendanceondemand.com.