Counter a competitive hiring market with a dynamic talent acquisition strategy

Earned wage access (EWA) and other bespoke financial wellness benefits may be the key to overcoming your talent acquisition challenges. 

Hiring the best talent to help to scale or innovate your business is paramount. But getting those people who will drive your business into the future is more competitive than before. 

Today’s workers want to be sure businesses provide adequate health and wellness care in addition to salary and doing meaningful work. According to a SHRM employee benefits survey from 2024, the top needs are health-related, retirement, leave, and flexible work schedules. A study we conducted at ZayZoon found that 91% of respondents felt benefits were important or very important in order to accept a new role.

For many workers, a comprehensive compensation package with both health and wellness benefits is required. Workers are betting on themselves far more than before. What those benefits include has changed, as many potential and current employees wish for health and wellness to include subset concerns like financial wellness. A solid talent acquisition strategy that addresses the market’s current challenges and employee needs is vital to save money, time and hire the right people. 

Here, we’ll unpack the challenges of current talent acquisition teams and how financial wellness tools like earned wage access (EWA) may be a vital overlooked key to unlocking the best hires for a business. 

Talent acquisition challenges 

Talent acquisition is difficult work. Hiring the best person for a role doesn’t solely come down to what the business needs or wants. Whoever is in the position to be potentially hired has a list of requirements, too, that need to be met.

Let’s first consider some of the ways talent acquisition is complicated in today’s job market and how best teams can work within them when shaping their talent acquisition strategy. 

1. Recruitment and training costs

According to a report produced by SHRM, recruitment costs in 2023 landed at $4700 per person. And that’s the average! Costs for other professional roles can get into the dozens of thousands. Recruitment costs can come from hiring external staffing organizations, job ads, software, and events. 

Not only that, consider how much it costs to train an employee. In a Statista report, onboarding costs are substantially higher for smaller businesses. For example, businesses with 100 - 999 employees usually pay $1100 per new hire. Enterprise businesses spend nearly $500 on new hire onboarding. 

2. Talent retention

Employees move on from their roles for all kinds of reasons. What remains is the reality that an open position ripples beyond talent teams looking to fill it. Productivity can decrease because less people means less work is getting done. A Gallup survey estimated a global loss of nearly $9 trillion due to low employee engagement. 

3. Diversity and inclusion rollback

A lot of companies are rolling back on diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) efforts to needlessly fit political trends. DEI isn’t a meaningless acronym. These are people’s real life experiences and backgrounds that inform who they are as workers and the unique challenges they face. 

By including a broad range of people from diverse backgrounds, businesses succeed more as their teams actually reflect the world we live in. A recent McKinsey study runs through all the ways a diverse company—especially with diversity in leadership—can be more profitable, effective, and scale. By rolling back DEI initiatives, companies risk losing incredible talent, and potentially profitability. 

4. Labor shortage

Heading into 2025, there is still a labor shortage for many industries, according to SHRM. That means attracting and retaining new talent may be an obstacle for many businesses in the coming year(s). 

5. Benefits and compensation packages

Today’s employee asks for more than a salary with a benefits package. They want total compensation and benefits to match their needs. Each package can look different depending on the new hire. For example, financial wellness is increasingly added to employee benefits, including retirement or investment opportunities, and earned wage access (EWA). An employee’s benefit package may lean more toward current financial wellness versus long-term investment opportunities. It’s a matter of providing exactly what an employee needs because there is a chance they’ll find it at a different company. 

Financial wellness and earned wage access (EWA) bolsters talent acquisition

Modern workplaces, no matter the industry or size, are reckoning with the changing nature of employee needs. An expanded definition of wellness needs to be more broadly accepted.

Financial wellness lives under the umbrella of health and wellness benefits. In ZayZoon’s annual state of employee financial wellness report, we found an inextricable link between financial security and wellness and employee stress.

Of the 2500 respondents to our survey:

• 35% said they were stressed daily about their finances
• 20% said they were very stressed 
• 73% said they stressed about covering necessities (bills, rent, and groceries) 

That trickles into the workplace. In some cases, it’s a deluge of stress felt everywhere. 

What does financial wellness have to do with talent acquisition? 

For businesses to understand why financial wellness is important to employees, consider what EY calls the holistic wellness revolution. There are five critical components: physical, mental, societal, professional and financial. Many of the current benefits employees have checked some boxes in each component. For example, for physical wellness, some businesses may partner with health-related companies for discounts or provide stipends or wellness funds that go toward a gym membership or physical activity accoutrements (a walking treadmill for home, anyone?) 

The primary goal of financial wellness efforts is to make employees feel secure in their position beyond the salary they take home. Financial benefits are usually retirement or investment-related. Think of a 401K or equity in a public company. 

Other financial benefits may include student loan debt relief, financial wellness courses and banking discounts, or earned wage access (EWA). ADP noted in a survey that 96% of respondent businesses said EWA helped them attract talent. 

EWA, or pay-on-demand, means employees don’t have to wait to get a portion of their paycheck. At ZayZoon, users can access it up to the second or third last day of a pay period and receive a portion of what they’ve already earned. This is great for prep like putting money in savings ahead of time or funding emergencies like an unforeseeable bill.

If employees are likely to leave jobs that don’t consider their needs, and financial wellness is something employees are increasingly hoping to receive, then there’s a tremendous effort and potential loss that comes with not offering it. Talent acquisition teams are working in a highly competitive market with a shortage of people to take roles. Discerning potential employees will turn down roles that don’t adequately and totally support their needs.

How does earned wage access (EWA) work at ZayZoon?

EWA is the same for every provider. For example, at ZayZoon, EWA doesn’t come at a cost for employers. Users pay a small fee for funds to be deposited into their account. There are other free options available at ZayZoon, like our prepaid VISA or gas card—the latter of which actually comes with a percentage increase, so users get more money to use. 

EWA empowers your employees to access their earned wages however and whenever they want or need for whatever the reason. With access to ZayZoon, users can also learn more about their finances, such as their buying personality with the Money Mindsets quiz. They can avoid penalties or late fees on credit card payments or other bills that may take a hit at their credit score or put them into overdraft. 

Integrating EWA into your talent acquisition strategy

When employers say they offer EWA in job postings, they’re likely to attract twice as many candidates. Implementing EWA into any talent acquisition strategy is easy, and will hopefully yield better results and lower recruiting costs. 

Consider the following for bringing EWA into your talent acquisition offerings: 

• Take a look at your overall health and wellness benefits package, and compensation. EWA can be slotted in as a regular benefit as the others. Frame it as easy, early-access to earned wages with zero friction.
• All employers need is implementation through their payroll and then it’s a very easy set-up for employees. Communicate that accessibility to potential hires.
• Let potential new hires know that you’re ready to take on an evolving workforce. Biweekly or monthly paycheck cycles don’t work for everyone, and offering EWA lets potential employees know you want to remain flexible to their needs. 
• Consistently tell potential and hired employees about the program and its benefits. If no one is using it, is it really a benefit?