Employers are coming to understand that if they want to keep — and retain — the best talent they need to prioritise the experience they offer their employees as much as they do their customers. And just as building a strong digital relationship with customers is a non-negotiable these days, so is it becoming a critical element of employee satisfaction.

Mercer sums it up well in their report, Technology — The New Imperatives for Financial Security:

“Ultimately, workers do not want to feel like they are traveling back in time when they go to work each day.”

Of all the emerging technologies, mobile wallets are showing steady take up across the world. While China still commands more than half the adoption rate, other countries are seeing growth in appetite for mobile wallets too. During 2019, Global Acceptance Transaction Engine (GATE) predicts that more than two billion people will make a payment or transfer money from a mobile wallet.

These digital payment solutions offer almost limitless potential for forward-looking companies looking to build a financial employee experience that is ahead of the game. Company-branded mobile wallet solutions can consolidate payroll and a host of other employee financial benefits in one easily accessible digital space.

Financial wellness is a key consideration for employers that want to get the most out of their employees. Research has established the prevalence of financial insecurity and stress in most workplaces. It has also found that employees are looking for online tools to help them improve their finances — and that the majority trust their employer to give them sound, independent advice on planning, saving and investing.

The research concluded that technology has an important role in offering not just the traditional employee benefits, such as retirement fund contributions and medical aid, but also to extend greater support and assistance to employees in making financially astute decisions. Employers who are able to meet these important employees needs will gain a significant advantage versus their competitors for talent.

Why are company-branded mobile wallets such a compelling digital financial solution for employees?

Mobile wallets are such potentially powerful financial tools because they are hosted on mobile devices and thus go where the employees go. Most employees, regardless of age, already live digital lifestyles, relying heavily on their mobile phones for a host of work and home activities. As a result, a company-branded mobile wallet would be easily and immediately accessible and could facilitate virtually any financial transaction in the employee’s day-to-day life.

By reinventing the employee experience using a branded, mobile wallet solution, employers could do everything from pay their employees via the wallet through to building an employee community through which they can engage digitally with their employees.

The potential functionality of a corporate-branded mobile wallet is virtually unlimited. Companies can offer employees access to a wide range of financial tools and guidance on the mobile wallet. These could include salary deposits, bonus payments, loan facilities, transactional capabilities, currency transfers, loyalty and reward programs, access to your retirement or Section 401(k) plans, gamified financial guidance and financial product offerings, such as long-term and short-term insurance, and investment and savings options.

The consolidation of all these tools in one place, on the mobile wallet, means that employers build and curate a financial experience that is both useful, engaging and enduring. It also allows employers to deliver an immersive company-branded experience that builds loyalty and employee engagement.

Mobile wallets are also highly scalable and can be built to cater for a huge number of employees, as well as to manage significant volumes of transactions simultaneously. Built on microservices architecture, mobile wallets are also highly adaptable, and functionality can be added and withdrawn based on employees’ needs and the amount they use the different components of the mobile wallet over time.

With security and privacy top of mind for any technology users, particularly when it involves financial transactions, employees can take comfort from the fact that mobile wallets are developed according to the most stringent regulatory standards. Many are developed on the distributed ledger technology that underpins cryptocurrencies, which ensures that there is no central repository of sensitive information that can be compromised.

The success of a new technology solution ultimately lies in the implementation and roll-out of the technology. For mobile wallets, this is a relatively straightforward process. The technical implementation begins with the software development kit (SDK) provided by the developer. This is the set of software development tools needed to set up the applications, software framework and hardware platform that together comprise all the technical components needed to implement the mobile wallet technology within the company.

The most challenging aspect of introducing a new technology to employees is likely to be encouraging the take up of the mobile wallet by employees and then ensuring its ongoing use. As a payroll solution, however, the probability of employees engaging with a company-branded mobile wallet is high. Salaries will be paid into the wallet, ensuring engagement, and, when accessing their monthly salaries or bonuses, employees will come into regular contact with the other functionality offered by the wallet.

It is clear that mobile wallets offer companies an exciting opportunity to uplift and engage in the lives of their employees in a realm that counts — their financial wellness. The future of employee engagement is here, it just needs to be clearly envisaged, cleverly designed and effectively implemented.