Dayforce Wallet Enables On-Demand Pay As a Cross-Sector Employee Financial Wellness Benefit

In a Nutshell: Human capital management company Ceridian is rebranding as Dayforce in January 2024 to recognize the leading role its Dayforce human capital management platform plays in the mid to large enterprise space. Dayforce appeals to enterprises because it offers a cohesive and efficient cross-modular experience in all sectors. With Dayforce Wallet, Dayforce enables on-demand pay, helping companies boost employee acquisition and retention and empowering workers to use their income constructively to reach their financial goals.

Robust payroll, HR, benefits, talent, and workforce management capabilities are table stakes in modern enterprise management. But that doesn’t mean every human capital management (HCM) platform is the same or offers the same benefits and efficiencies.

Whether platforms are designed from the ground up makes a difference in how they work and the benefits they bring.

That’s why Dayforce, the flagship platform by global HCM leader Ceridian, has achieved such penetration in the enterprise market — so much so that Ceridian will rebrand to Dayforce in January 2024 to acknowledge and build on Dayforce’s leadership in the space.

Many ostensibly integrated HCM platforms are unified in name only, meaning they tack on new functionality on an as-needed basis through mergers and acquisitions. Dayforce, on the other hand, offers customers a single-data architecture, a unified codebase with one employee record linked across the platform. Inherently, it’s a simpler and more efficient way to do HCM.

But it’s more than that. As the new Dayforce continues to build on its successes as Ceridian, it also seeks to add value to its integrated HCM approach through Dayforce Wallet, which offers businesses of all sizes in all sectors a more modern way to pay employees.

Aaron Fox, VP Commercial for Dayforce Wallet, said Dayforce Wallet provides employees access to their earned wages on demand through an intuitive mobile app and an accompanying prepaid card while opening new avenues for companies to differentiate themselves in an ever-more challenging jobs marketplace.

“The number-one light bulb that goes off for the HR and benefits people we talk to is they see it as a recruiting tool,” Fox said. “But overwhelming numbers of employees using Dayforce Wallet also report financial wellness benefits beyond the tangible receipt of wages.”

Businesses of all sizes need human capital management services like payroll and time and attendance monitoring to function. What Dayforce has always done differently from its competitors is build on a single-data architecture to house all operational data on one platform.

The more common approach in the HCM industry is to build out a core service and acquire additional modules as needed. The result can be a disconnected user experience from a look-and-feel perspective and poor after-sales support because parts of the company don’t know how other parts of the platform work.

A single-data architecture eliminates the need to enter and update data into separate systems, reducing process errors and creating a consistent user experience across all modules. Updates are seamless and flow to all users simultaneously.

The simplicity of the Dayforce solution also gives rise to technical benefits, including what Fox calls the platform’s killer app: its continuous calculation engine. The platform performs real-time calculations as it captures payroll time, improving data accuracy and reducing the risk of delayed or failed data imports.

“The continuous calculation engine runs real-time gross-to-net calculations for every employee receiving their payroll through Dayforce,” Fox said. “Our single data architecture gives us all the information we need to know to say confidently, at any point in time, this is what an employee has earned and hasn’t earned right now.”

Fox said another benefit of single data architecture is that it empowers the company to efficiently build new global features to reach new segments of the HCM market. That’s what it’s done with Dayforce Wallet, a standalone app that intentionally pings back to the Dayforce platform to tell it what to do.

“And we’ve partnered with Mastercard and issuing banks to ensure users can easily access, spend, and transfer their earnings,” Fox said. “That’s the genesis of the whole thing.”

It may seem simple, but Dayforce Wallet creates a triple-win scenario. Dayforce wins because it reaches a segment of customers with workers who most benefit from on-demand pay. The companies win because they receive another arrow in their employee retention and acquisition arsenal. And employees win because they can access their pay as they earn it, which means more flexibility to do the things they need and want to do financially.

“We’re applying technology to payroll so we can run it much faster,” Fox said. “There’s a core case for people who are generally hourly workers and need more immediate access to their wages to meet cash flow and emergency needs.”

Also, Dayforce Wallet emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic and saw extensive customer pickup as companies, especially in sectors like retail and hospitality, sought to lure employees back to the office.

As pandemic-related office issues subside, Dayforce also sees customer growth in various professional services sectors as companies grapple with a more competitive employment market and add value to employee services. There’s also interest in seeing Dayforce build additional services into the app, such as the ability to set savings goals.

“I’ll see things on LinkedIn and on benefits pages of company websites where companies will list getting paid right after you work as a benefit,” Fox said. “And we often talk to the employees who they tell us really amazing things about the integration into their financial lives.”

The proof is in the pudding: Employers can reduce 90-day attrition by as much as 25% among hourly employees by offering Dayforce Wallet. According to SSRS research on Dayforce Wallet users conducted on behalf of Ceridian in 2023, 84% of surveyed users say that Dayforce Wallet helps their ability to pay more of their bills on time, and 77% of surveyed users consider Dayforce Wallet to be an important part of their financial strategy.

“Employees regularly say there’s value to them in just opening the app and watching their wages increase,” Fox said.

Fox said folks with more financial flexibility may not appreciate the peace of mind an additional cash cushion can provide to a worker who fits the Dayforce Wallet profile.

It can be especially acute for employees when the current high inflation and interest-rate environment takes a particularly large bite out of their finances.

“When you don’t have financial security, you feel stressed, and Dayforce Wallet provides some relief,” Fox said.

As Dayforce Wallet makes inroads into professional services, other use cases emerge. Some employees use the app’s more flexible pay access to invest funds sooner. Others use it to provide a controlled form of disposable income or liquidity as an alternative to high-interest credit.

Watch on

“They’re integrating it into an overall financial strategy,” Fox said. “Employers are attracted to that because the imperative to provide more and more financial wellness opportunities is there.”

Savings goals are potentially on the docket as an add-on for Dayforce Wallet. The platform could also become a source of merchant discounts and rewards boosts as Dayforce seeks partners in the retail marketplace. The app’s single data architecture and continuous calculation engine combine to create a blank canvas for innovation.

Feedback is overwhelmingly positive. Fox said he’s never heard a customer say they wished they had never installed the Wallet. Dayforce account managers measure customer satisfaction through surveys. As Dayforce gains insight into how workers use the app, it discovers potentials that may influence its development trajectory.

Fox said the company is interested in how use patterns might inform additional decision-making around employee servicing, particularly in the distributed workforce.

“I think we’re scratching the surface there at the moment,” he said.

That’s because Dayforce works in a dynamic space with a new approach in a comparatively new HCM segment. It continues to differentiate itself in how it services the segment and through the control it offers.

“The unique way we’re offering Dayforce Wallet is what makes me most excited about the product,” Fox said.