Early pay day for Stonegate staff
The company, which is set to takeover Ei Group and become the country’s largest pub owner, has signed up to the income streaming app Wagestream.
Employees can take out a percentage of their earned wages any day of the month at a standard cost of £1.75.
The app’s founder said it would reduce financial worries for staff and prevent them from using pay-day lenders as well as boosting staff retention.
Wagestream CEO and co-founder Peter Briffett said: “Wagestream fits hand in glove with the pub sector and the way businesses in this sector employ staff.
“That’s because it’s common for pubs to have difficulty filling shifts, particularly at late notice. However, we know from experience that this ceases to be a problem once staff know they can access pay for those shifts straight away.”
Some 63% of Stonegate’s hourly employees have already signed up to the app, with 6,000 employees having made at least one transfer.
Briffett added: “Wagestream provides a golden incentive to workers to alleviate this problem, while both the employer and employee start to see additional hours as mutually beneficial.
“We’ve even found that staff start asking for more shifts at firms who were previously struggling to fill them, such is the power of re-establishing an instantaneous link between work and wages.”
Recruitment crisis
Stonegate Pubs HR director Tim Painter said the benefits of the partnership were already apparent.
He claimed: “Our employees have had an overwhelmingly positive reaction to the introduction of this service.
“Getting early access to money you have already earned, which is to all intents and purposes yours, seems so simple but this is a real revolution in pay that is already making it easier to recruit and retain staff.”
