CUSTOMER STORY
Providing flexible pay to hospitality staff
Whistlepunks is not your standard hospitality business. Not only do they provide people with a place to go out, be social and have fun, but they also teach visitors how to throw axes! This concept has grown extremely popular since hanging its first bullseye in 2016 and is now a growing business with five venues strategically placed across the UK. Needless to say, a business with such a fresh concept also needed a modern way of paying staff advances on their salaries.
That’s where Orka Pay came in.
A mix of employees
“Almost 50% of our staff are students, and we also have a lot of people with a second job. We employ actors, circus performers, knife throwers, jugglers, fire eaters – we have everything at Whistlepunks!”
Roz Gibson is the Head of HR at Whistlepunks and explains that a lot of the staff have second jobs on the side where hours often depend on the season and demand. This was leading to an increase in salary advance requests and the need for flexible pay for hospitality staff.
“It’s difficult to give advances in salaries ad hoc and keep tabs on it! So 99% of the time, we had to refuse requests, which felt harsh on employees. When we looked into Orka Pay, we thought it was a fantastic way of letting the employees have advances when they need them without creating a tonne of admin for payroll.”
“It’s difficult to give advances in salaries ad hoc and keep tabs on it! So 99% of the time we had to refuse requests, which felt harsh on employees. When we looked into Orka Pay, we thought it was a fantastic way of letting the employees have advances when they need them without creating a tonne of admin for payroll.”
“It’s difficult to give advances in salaries ad hocand keep tabs on it – it’s a minefield! So 99% of the time we had to refuse requests, which felt harsh on employees. When we looked into Orka Pay, we thought it was a fantastic way of letting the employees have advances when they need them without creating a tonne of admin for payroll.”
A financial safety net
As an employer that wants to look after their staff and employs a lot of young people, it was important for Whistlepunks to offer a safe and ethical way to access money in emergencies or when faced with unexpected expenses. Flexible pay for hospitality staff enables their employees to manage finances on their own time.
“I had a student whose laptop broke in the middle of their dissertation, and Orka Pay enabled them to go out and pay for a repair straight away rather than wait three weeks until payday. The fact that we were able to advise them to join Orka Pay, use it straight away, and then they were able to access money is a perfect example of Orka Pay helping an employee out,” says Roz.
From the point of view of the Axe Throwing Instructors, Orka Pay is seen as a safety net should they face unexpected expenses.
“Orka Pay has definitely improved my peace of mind. Say you get a parking fine or a speeding fine, you might not get paid in time to resolve it and then you’ll get late payment fees on top of this expense. I can just open up my phone, get that money, pay it and then pick up an extra shift at work to cover that bill,” says Vicky, one of the Axe Throwing Instructors at Whistlepunks in the London Vauxhall venue.
Protecting employees from debt and bad credit
Orka Pay’s approach to Earned Wage Access is simple: Once you’ve worked a shift and that has been confirmed by management, the employee has technically earned that money – it’s just being held by the employer until a certain date. Orka Pay unlocks 50% of those wages, makes them available to the employee and streamlines the process of withdrawing, creating flexible pay for hospitality staff.
Giving your staff access to platforms like Orka Pay helps protect them from getting into unmanageable debt. Particularly for students and young people, Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) schemes have risen in popularity to manage unexpected expenses, but Citizens Advice recently released a report saying over half of young people (between 25 and 34 years) who have used a Buy-Now-Pay-Later scheme in the last year, have struggled to make a repayment.
Although the report calls for more regulation on the BNPL, better alternatives, such as Earned Wage Access technology, could be implemented by employers to save people the trauma caused by unmanageable debt, and the damage this can have on your credit score. Employers like Whistlepunks are at the forefront of protecting young people from getting into debt early in life, and if you want to help your staff safeguard their financial health as well, book a demo with Orka Pay now to learn more about flexible pay for hospitality staff.
More benefits
In addition to helping staff avoid unmanageable or even dangerous debt, Roz mentions the platform having positive effects across the business.
“I would definitely say people would pick up overtime shifts knowing that the can cash in on it sooner.” She mentions that Whistlepunks is a fun working environment, so their staff turnover rate is relatively low as a company, but it helps attract new staff and helps them compete for staff with niche skills.
“Increasingly, solutions such as Orka Pay is something people are looking for when starting a new job. Especially in hospitality and in casual or part-time work, and for students. I think having access to pay when they earn it is a pull.”
For the instructors, Orka Pay is drastically different from what they’ve experienced in other workplaces.
“I really haven’t seen anything like Orka Pay. I’ve been a freelance actor and entertainer, plus had a few jobs in retail. No one has really introduced an advance payment system like Orka Pay. One previous job used a system that was so out of date. It needed all my details written down on paper. It then had to go through my manager and then HR, who authorised it. If someone hasn’t filled it out properly, it can still take a week to get it done. Orka Pay just cuts middle management of the process completely,” says Martin, another Axe Throwing Instructor at Whistlepunks London.
Setting up flexible pay for hospitality staff
If we yet again look at some points from the Citizens Advice report on BNPL purchasers, some additional data states that almost 46% of people chased by debt collectors after failing to repay reported sleepless nights, 40% ignored texts, emails letters or calls out of fear and 54% turned to other forms of debt to pay it off.
Any company in any sector can use Orka Pay, and our onboarding process is quick and easy. Being able to offer your employees a safe, ethical and reliable way to access money when they need it is key to maintaining their financial health and wellbeing at work.
To get started, speak to someone in the team today.
