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Country Fair cuts employee turnover by 22 percent with ZayZoon
InDev Supported Living strengthens employee engagement with ZayZoon Rewards & Recognition
About InDev Supported Living
- Location: Memphis, TN
- Industry: Healthcare
- Employees: 150
Engaging your deskless workers can be difficult, and it even can become a financial and productive strain for employers. Every disconnected employee adds up: disengaged employees cost the global economy $438 billion in 2024.
Remote-first, healthcare or gig workers, and more across numerous industries, work alone. InDev Supported Living employees often feel the strain of disconnection. If they’re lucky, if they have the time, some InDev Supported Living employees and managers see each other in person at an all-staff meeting once a year.
The Memphis-based assisted living service helps adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities in its group homes and has nearly 150 employees. Because of the nature of the work, many of these employees have to work solo in one of the homes. Even other staff not directly working with clients are remote, including Will Boutwell, the director of operations for InDev Supported Living. Boutwell says engaging with each other is often a forgotten priority.
As working models and locations evolve, accommodating all different types of situations, it’s necessary to rethink employee engagement and how to connect workers back to their company. InDev Supported Living worked with ZayZoon and to implement our new Rewards & Recognition program to help drive engagement and reward the healthcare business’s longest serving employees.
Problem
InDev Supported Living needed a solution to engage its employees and bridge the gap between employer and employee. Healthcare is a tough industry to be in: burnout rates have steadily increased over the past few years with 35.4% of employees reporting experiencing it in 2023. There are high expectations on the job that only get higher with a reduction in staff or lofty turnover rates. Recognition comes too late: employees have either moved on elsewhere or left the industry altogether.
Beyond the everyday stressors of the job, being necessarily disconnected from other coworkers to accomplish tasks takes its toll on InDev’s employees. InDev’s workers often prioritize the clients in homes, and checking in or talking to other peers or managers is lower on the to-do list.
Boutwell explains that “the yearly all-hands staff meeting is important to keep colleagues connected, but that or the annual holiday party may be that’s the only instance of connection.”InDev, like other healthcare providers, sees high turnover. That means, many workers don’t even make it to the all-hands meeting or other gatherings.
Solution
InDev Supported Living turned to ZayZoon’s new Rewards & Recognition program in an effort to connect with employees and work toward lowering attrition rates. With R&R, employers can consistently and easily recognize their employees’ hard work. They can select a gift card with an amount of their choosing from dozens of different retailers, tailoring the gift and recognition to their employee.
R&R was designed by ZayZoon to make recognizing employees and peers fast, flexible and easy. Boutwell agrees, saying rewarding and recognizing employee work is easier. It works toward building that muscle to recognize good work.
Having an active role in an employee’s engagement at work is no longer optional, it’s mandatory. You can create an environment your employees want to be part of while boosting retention, tackling morale issues and improving attendance.
Results
14
Total number of
gift cards sent
$3,600
Total value of
rewards dispersed
12
Total number of rewards sent to long serving employees*
Boutwell decided to focus recognition efforts toward the longest serving employees. There was a 100% voluntary workforce sign-up for R&R, meaning employees wanted this and were ready to acknowledge one another.
Because of the high turnover in this field, Boutwell says, from a management perspective he first wanted to recognize folks who had longer tenures. He began sending monetary rewards to those who had been employed between five and 10 years.
Recognizing their longest tenured employees is paramount to keeping them in this role. They have valuable historical knowledge and connection to the business. And it’s had a great impact on employees, Boutwell says, because they are feeling surprised and really valued for their hard work.
An additional perk? The word-of-mouth benefits of a community of healthcare workers hearing about InDev Supported Living actively rewarding its employees.
*12 for years of service—first category for five to nine years; 2nd for 10+ years
About Country Fair
Country Fair is a convenience store chain with over 70 locations in three U.S. states. Its mission is “Country Fair Cares—For its Employees, its Customers, and its Community.”
To meet and surpass their company mission every day, Country Fair partnered with ZayZoon to address high turnover rates and offer the best benefits to its employees.
- Industry: Convenience
- Headquarters: Text
- Payroll platform: Text
- Number of employees: Text
Challenges
High turnover and financially stressed employees
The convenience store industry has notoriously high turnover rates. The National Association of Convenience Stores reported turnover rates for full-time and part-time employees in the industry averaged 141 percent in 2022.
Driving employee retention was a priority for Country Fair, whose customer-oriented mission was negatively impacted by the operational burdens caused by high turnover.
While Country Fair’s turnover rate was much lower than the industry standard, at close to 60 percent, the high costs associated with hiring and training new employees still presented the company with a challenge.
“We're always looking for ways to improve that turnover rate. We do that by finding vendor partners and offering products and services to our employees. This was just a really good opportunity for us to add something to our arsenal that we thought would help us retain folks.”
–Steve Seymour, Director of Personnel Training & Development, Country Fair
Financial stress among employees was another significant challenge, contributing to absenteeism and productivity issues. This is common for most workplaces today, as ZayZoon’s State of Employee Financial Wellness Report found that:
- 35% of employees are stressed about their finances daily
- 63% of employers said that financial stress negatively impacts employees’ performance at work.
Employees who experience financial stress are likely to not show up for work or have productivity issues during their shift. This affects the consistent and high-quality customer experience Country Fair strives to provide.
Country Fair needed a cost-effective solution that drove retention and supported employees’ financial wellness.
Our solution
Earned wage access (EWA)
To help decrease employee turnover rates and manage hiring and training costs, Country Fair worked with ZayZoon to introduce earned wage access (EWA) to its employees.
When considering competitors, ZayZoon’s people-driven product, no-cost-to-employer model, and quick and easy onboarding process was the obvious choice.
ZayZoon’s emphasis on employee well-being, with features like fee-free early wage access through gift cards and bonuses, aligned with Country Fair’s commitment to supporting its team members. This was a key factor for Country Fair in choosing ZayZoon over other EWA providers.
ZayZoon offers fee-free gift cards that encourage employees to get early access to their wages via bonuses for gas or groceries that actually give them more money than their regular paycheck.
“When we vetted other companies, they wanted to charge for this, that, and the other thing. But our employees love the idea of the gift card purchases, especially with the add-ons on the gift cards. I mean if you think about this a minute, a $100 Walmart card, maybe 110 because of a 10 percent advantage on that card, that's ten dollars that might be a dinner at somebody's house one night.”
–Steve Seymour, Director of Personnel Training & Development, Country Fair
Results
22% reduction in turnover with ZayZoon
The impact of ZayZoon’s partnership with Country Fair was immediate. A year-long analysis comparing Country Fair employees enrolled in ZayZoon compared to those who weren’t found remarkable results: employee turnover was 22 percent lower among employees who used ZayZoon.
This is a significant reduction in turnover, which directly contributes to better customer service offered by Country Fair. Reducing turnover means that Country Fair customers aren’t impacted by the gaps in customer experience that can sometimes occur during periods of hiring and training new employees.
Reduced turnover also reduces hiring and training costs, positively impacting Country Fair’s bottom line.
ZayZoon helps Country Fair employees manage their financial wellness
Country Fair integrated ZayZoon into their employee orientation, ensuring new hires were introduced to EWA on their first day of work. This process boosted adoption rates to 37 percent, helping over a third of their workforce access immediate financial support.
Country Fair employees found that access to ZayZoon’s EWA helped them manage financial emergencies. One employee’s car battery stopped working on his way to work—a nightmare in the tough winters of Erie, PA. Because this employee had access to ZayZoon’s pay on-demand, he received an immediate pay advance that helped him fix the issue and get to work.
Other employees didn’t have gas money for the week, but by using ZayZoon’s gift cards, they could make it to their shifts.
ZayZoon’s earned wage access helps Country Fair employees manage instances of financial stress, enabling them to be more present at work.
“I think [ZayZoon] helps our company in that [it helps] people to come to work," says Steve Seymour, Country Fair's Director of Personnel Training & Development. "Call-offs hurt in a convenience store because customer service is lost when you’re short-staffed. So for people to be able to get access to their pay to get fuel, a new battery, that’s kind of a big deal.”
Empower your employees with earned wage access
ZayZoon’s earned wage access made a difference for Country Fair because it provided a meaningful benefit that helped employees close gaps between paydays. By doing so, ZayZoon directly improved employees’ financial wellness and job satisfaction while decreasing costly turnover and absenteeism rates. It's a win-win for employers and employees!
If your organization is dealing with financially stressed employees or turnover and engagement issues, give your team an impactful solution with ZayZoon.
Contact us for a free demo with a real live person who can walk you through our seamless, payroll-embedded EWA solution today.
“You try to bring programs in and see how they do for your company. Some programs go by the wayside. I have a feeling [ZayZoon] is gonna stay a good while.”
–Steve Seymour, Director of Personnel Training & Development, Country Fair
