Talent acquisition and Earned Wage Access: a cost-effective strategy with a competitive edge

Having the right talent acquisition strategy is important—especially in today's work climate. 

Since the great resignation, many businesses have struggled with talent recruitment and retention. This has led to many re-evaluating their talent acquisition strategies or even creating new ones from scratch. 

Taking the time to understand and come up with the right talent acquisition strategy for you and your team is important and will help improve your business's bottom line. 

Without the right strategy in place, you’ll run into two problems: 

First, recruiting new team members will cost you unnecessary time and money. 

Second, it’ll quickly become clear to your team that they won’t be prioritized. 

Once new hires get the sense that they won’t be treated the way they’d like to be treated, they’ll quickly start looking for places that will and you’ll be back to square one. 

Although creating a talent acquisition strategy that works well and gives you a competitive advantage may feel quite daunting at first—there are some misconceptions worth addressing that may help you on your journey. 

Lucy Walker Recruiting, shared their list of common myths regarding talent acquisition and in it, we found three that are very important to keep in mind for small to mid-sized businesses looking to stay competitive: 

• Simply paying more money will attract the best talent 
• The interview is the most important step in the hiring process 
• Talent acquisition is expensive and time consuming

In this article, we will address these misconceptions around talent acquisition and offer you a cost effective strategy to gain a competitive edge with Earned Wage Access. 

Debunking Talent Acquisition Myths

Our solutions to these misconceptions:

1.) Research the current job market and your competitors to ensure that the wages you’re offering are on par with similar roles available to potential applicants. 

The biggest, most common myth about talent acquisition is that simply throwing money at the problem will solve it. 

Yes, adequate salaries and raises are the probably the most important aspect of your talent acquisition strategy to most people, but your strategy as a whole should include much more than that. 

According to Gallup, the other four most important things to include would be: 

• Greater work-life balance and better personal wellbeing
• The ability to do what they do best 
• Greater stability and job security
• The organization is diverse and inclusive of all types of people 
  
  

The interview process is also a cause for many misconceptions when it comes to talent acquisition. 

Simply put, just because a candidate does well in an interview, doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be great for the job. Same goes for candidates who don’t perform well. 

The right talent acquisition strategy should include both good financial compensation and a rigorous, well thought out interview process—and it doesn’t end there. 

But unlike the third misconception we pointed out above, that doesn’t mean it needs to be time-consuming and expensive, too. 

And with tools like Earned Wage Access, ZayZoon can help elevate your strategy to another level. 

96% surveyed businesses stated EWA helps them attract talent.

Building your talent acquisition foundation:

Before you go improving your strategy, let’s make sure you have one in place, first. 

If you’re feeling green on talent acquisition in general, we have some great resources for you to get started where we explore the differences between talent acquisition and recruitment strategies. 

In it, you should find everything you need to get your talent acquisition strategy off the ground. Including: 

• Defining talent acquisition

• Finding talent acquisition specialists or appointing from within 

• Developing talent acquisition strategies

• Developing talent acquisition metrics

• Monitoring your program

Understanding Earned Wage Access: A Strategic, Cost-Effective Differentiator

As you create your talent acquisition strategy, it’s natural to look for any advantages you can take to set yourself apart. 

This is a great time to let the creative juices flow. Maybe you offer a gift for new hires or the promise of a celebrity appearance at this year's extravagant Christmas party. 

Although your employees and potential candidates may appreciate this type of grand sentiment, it could get quite expensive, quite quickly. 

Luckily, we have a less expensive option that will also bring you and your team value. 

With Earned Wage Access, your employees can improve cash flow with access to money they’ve already made—before their paycheck. EWA is free to the employer and quick and easy to set up, with no distribution to payroll or tax reporting. 

According to our good friends at ADP, 96% of surveyed businesses stated that EWA helps them attract talent. 

It’s no secret that employees like having access to their own money and at no cost and minimal effort from the employer, EWA seems like an obvious choice. 

But does integrating EWA make your talent acquisition strategy a heavier lift? Let’s explore.

Integrating EWA into Your Talent Acquisition Strategy

Despite the fact that employers offering EWA attract twice as many candidates, EWA is still subject to its own misconceptions. 

Some business owners/HR managers believe things like: 

• EWA is expensive or time-consuming 
• My team doesn’t have a need for EWA 
• EWA will have negative implications on payroll 

When it comes to Earned Wage Access, integration is seamless. ZayZoon takes pride in offering a quick and easy sign-up so employers don’t need to worry. 

Employers looking to implement can simply go to ZayZoon.com/Employers and request a free demo. From there we handle all the setup on our end, the only thing left for employers is promoting the service internally. 

Internal promotion at any company is easy. For the most part, all you need to do is inform them of this new benefit and watch adoption rates increase. 

In our experience, EWA has been a tremendous asset to people living paycheck-to-paycheck but many businesses who utilize us are often shocked at the amount of managers and long-standing employees also using the service. 

A testament that any team can use EWA to their advantage. 

Success Stories: EWA in Action

Although Earned Wage Access is still considered a relatively new benefit, the results speak for themselves. 

The feedback we’ve received on platforms like G2 has been positive. Many businesses are pleasantly surprised with the ease of setup and the amount of people taking payouts almost immediately. 

Many business owners assume that EWA will only be utilized by more junior or entry-level employees, however, many managers and high-salaried employees also take advantage of our service. 

Final thoughts

As we said earlier, a strong talent acquisition strategy is more important than ever. 

The internet has made looking and applying for jobs much easier. On top of that, the effects of the pandemic on the economy have also drastically shifted the job market. 

Although retaining and attracting talent in today’s job market has improved recently, having a talent acquisition plan in place may simply not be enough—with modern benefits like Earned Wage Access, you can gain a competitive edge without breaking the bank. 

Finding the right tools to stick out can be easy with ZayZoon.

Call to Action

If you’re looking a talent acquisition differentiator that is, free to setup, quick to implement and easy to use, then look no further. 

You’re only a few clicks away from setting up a demo. 

Click here to learn more.