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B2B Agility with Greg Kihlström™: MarTech, E-Commerce, & Customer Success
#18: Employee Experience as Competitive Edge with Nico Simko, Clair
00:19:58
In today’s work environment, financial wellness benefits are increasingly recognized for their role in enhancing employee satisfaction, retention, and productivity. Also, as we delve deeper into the modern workforce’s expectations, particularly...
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- [00:00]
T-Mobile Announcer
Breaking News T Mobile Network outperforms expectations in all sectors because T Mobile helps keep you connected from the heart of Portland to right where you are on America's largest 5G network. Switch now. Keep your phone and T Mobile will pay it off up to $800 per line via prepaid card. Visit your local T Mobile location or learn more@t mobile.com keepandswitch up to 4 lines of your virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days qualifying unlocked device, credit service support in 90 days device and eligible carrier and timely redemption required Card has no cash access and expires in six months.
- [00:31]
Nico Simcoe
You are no dummy, but you're kind of acting like one. You used to crush it in school, outsmarting opponents on the field, and now, well, you're still smart, but not exactly challenging yourself. You could be advancing nuclear engineering in the world's most powerful Navy. You were born for it. So make the smart choice. You can be smart or you can be nuke smart. Become a nuclear engineer@navy.com nukesmart America's Navy forged by the Sea the Agile Brand.
- [01:08]
Greg Kilstrom
Welcome to the B2B Agility Podcast where we look at the factors that drive success in B2B marketing, with a focus on the people, processes, data and platforms that make B2B brands stand out and thrive in a competitive marketplace. I'm your host Greg Kilstrom, advising Fortune 1000 brands on martech, marketing operations and CX, best selling author and speaker. Before we get started, I wanted to let you know that my latest book, Priority is seven Principles for Better Strategies, Decisions and Outcomes is now available. In it, I give ideas and insights for leaders and teams that need to make meaningful progress on their priorities. After all, our priorities are what we do, not what we say we'd like to do. You can find Priority as Action on Amazon or learn more on my website greggkilstrom.com now let's get on to the show. Just a note before we get started. This episode ran earlier on my other podcast, the Agile Brand, but I thought it was a great fit for this B2B focused show as well. I hope you enjoy in today's work environment, financial wellness benefits are increasingly recognized for their role in enhancing employee satisfaction, retention and productivity. As we delve deeper into the modern workforce's expectations, particularly younger generations, it's clear that innov innovative solutions like On Demand Pay are not just perks, but essential components of a competitive employee benefits package. To explore these developments and their implications for both employers and employees, I'd like to welcome Nico Simcoe, founder and CEO of Clare to join us today. Nico, welcome to the show.
- [02:47]
Nico Simcoe
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
- [02:48]
Greg Kilstrom
Yeah, welcome back as well. So returning champion here. So. So for those, for those that missed the episode you were on probably a little over a year ago, do you mind giving us a little background on, you know, why you founded Claire as well as a little bit about what Claire does?
- [03:06]
Nico Simcoe
Absolutely. Founded Claire because during college I was an economics tutor, which was an hourly job. I got paid via physical check in the mail every two to three weeks. And then I realized at the same time that there was this cool thing called Venmo where you could pay your friends in a few clicks. And I was like, wow, you can pay your friends in a few click. Doesn't cost you anything, but it literally takes two weeks for your paycheck to run and then you get a physical check in the mail, usually five or six days afterwards. This makes no sense. And so from there on, I kind of didn't do anything for five years. But when Uber came out with Uber money, I was like, someone needs to invent this concept for the rest of the US Economy. So for medium sized businesses, large sized businesses, mom and pop shops in all 50 states. And that's how Claire started.
- [03:49]
Greg Kilstrom
Wonderful. Yeah, definitely. That's great. And let's start here by talking about financial wellness benefits in some of those high demand sectors. And so industries like retail and hospitality and other similar industries. High demand especially there's seasonality there as well. So you have high demand, high pressure. Financial wellness benefits can play a big role here in not only ensuring employee satisfaction, satisfaction and retention, but also in recruiting as well, because there's a lot of competition during those key seasons. So let's, let's talk a little bit more about that. And so, you know, given the importance of these benefits, particularly to some workers, how should companies in high demand sectors like retail and hospitality think about incorporating these benefits, especially when gearing up for peak seasons?
- [04:46]
Nico Simcoe
Yep. So most of the industries you've mentioned have seen that it's very hard for them to attract and retain talent. The talent war, as you can put it, is real and it's been real and accentuated during COVID and it kind of remained like that. They need to be competitive. They need to show without breaking the bank ways for why an employee should come work for them instead of the person across the street. That's the number one reason why they should have on demand pay. The other reason is you want at the end of the day to have as happy of employees, even if they stay. But you want to have happy employees and as less stressed employees as you can so they can serve your customers in the best way possible. So even if you don't have a retention issue, even if you don't have a hiring issue, how can you help people, you know, feel, for example, less stressed on a day to day basis? The number one cause of stress in the United States is financial stress. So ultimately the thing you want to do is help them with that. And so that's where Claire comes in. And most employers that are on our product sign up and encourage employees to use us for that particular reason.
- [05:58]
Greg Kilstrom
Yeah, and to build on that, you know, to the culture aspect, you know, there's. Not only does that benefit the employees, but, you know, as you were saying it, it benefits the brands as well with things like productivity and satisfaction. So you know, how some of that might, you know, might sound obvious to others, but you know, what are some of the benefits, you know, when you're able to take the financial stress off of employees, what are companies able to get from those employees?
- [06:29]
Nico Simcoe
Well, absenteeism is pretty high when people are financially stressed. I'll give you one of my favorite examples that was real. I talked to an employee who worked at a quick service restaurant and I asked them like about their experience with banking and with just financial services as a whole. And they had signed up for Clare and they said, look, since I've signed up for Claire, I've stopped going to work for Uber at the end of the month. And I was like, what do you mean? It's like, well, I kind of told my manager, like, if he wouldn't let me go, I'd just be like, look, I'm sick, right? I want to go. And I was like, why is this? Well, because ends meet are hard. It's hard to make end meet ends meet. So I will call and say, go drive for Uber and Uber pays me immediately. And so for them that was like, one thing is that they would just show up to work more and the other way that this really impacted them. Beyond that, I think specific example is we've seen in our application that people come for wage advances, meaning they come and take a bunch of wage advances. But as they've been with us for about a month, two months, they take less and less wage advance, which is a great thing, right? Because for us that means they're saving more and they can plan for their financial life. And so sometimes you find people in like kind of this, we've all gone through this, right, where you're just short on money for a specific period of time and you just got to get over the hump. And so all of that is to say is we are able to service kind of all of these micro needs and combined together they represent quite a big chunk of the population.
- [07:52]
Greg Kilstrom
Yeah. And I mean that's you know, so having, having that even if it's a small reserve sometimes it's like that's their mind is on work. And plus you know, it's, it's like that win win. Right. It's like they're the, the, the companies are getting what they need because their employees show up and they're focused on their work and the employees are paying their bills on time and putting a little bit away for, for a rainy day and everything like that. So yeah, I mean it sounds like like, like a win win there. And so, you know, I wanted to talk a little bit then about you know, just the, the concept of, of on demand pay and, and, and its effects. And you know, we mentioned some of the benefits and kind of started out, you know, talking about the, the benefits. But you know, with studies indicating a strong preference for on demand pay among employees. How does this. Again, you know, we, we talked through the company and the employee relationship. What about those end customers? You know, what, what are the, how are the end customers benefiting from, from this kind of win win with the, the company and the, and the employee?
- [09:01]
Nico Simcoe
So the reality is it's just quality of service that they're going to get. I mean there's this famous phrase, right, which is like treat your employees the best way possible because in return they will treat your customers the best way possible. And I think that's the, that's kind of the mentality.
- [09:16]
Greg Kilstrom
Yeah.
- [09:17]
Nico Simcoe
You know, I run a business myself. You know, we have dozens and dozens and dozens of employees in different divisions and it can't be more real. Is that if I am kind to my employees, if I'm supportive in times when it's tough where, and also sometimes being kind is also giving harsh, harsh feedback but showing I care, they're also going to care a lot about the outcome to, of the product they're building because they want to keep their job and they want the company to succeed. And so that's, that's the self fulfilling prophecy.
- [09:45]
Greg Kilstrom
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- [10:46]
T-Mobile Announcer
Network outperforms expectations in all sectors because T Mobile helps keep you connected from the heart of Portland to right where you are on America's largest 5G network. Switch now, keep your phone and T Mobile will pay it off up to $800 per line via prepaid card. Visit your local T Mobile location or learn more@t mobile.com keepandswitch up to four lines via virtual prepaid card last 15 days qualifying unlock device credit service port in 90 plus days device and eligible carrier and timely redemption required Card is no cash access and expires in six.
- [11:11]
Greg Kilstrom
Months so why don't you talk a little bit about, you know, how does how exactly does CLAIR work? And you know, how do you how are you facilitating this demand for on demand pay and you know, maybe talk about how it works and then you know, if you could talk about some outcomes for companies as well, that'd be great.
- [11:35]
Nico Simcoe
Yep. So the way it works currently employees at businesses will hear about us mostly within their payroll workforce management system or they'll hear about it from manager or QR code on the wall. And what they'll hear is is this Sign up for a new bank and as soon as you clock out of work a portion of your paycheck is available. That's the value. Proposal is do you want a new bank account? If you're open to it, we can give you this flexpay option. They sign up, they get at least a portion of their paycheck every month. We don't force them to. Absolutely not. They can ach money out to another bank account whenever they want, but most of them will spend on the card and These consumers are now able to honestly be better banked. And in case they're at the gas station and their card that they swiped is not working, then they get the ability to flex their payoff money they've earned but not yet received.
- [12:29]
Greg Kilstrom
Yeah, yeah. And so, you know, what kind of, what kind of outcomes do you hear from your customer? You know, the, the brands that hire your company, you know, what, what kind of stories are you hearing from them as far as, you know, how this is benefiting their, their employees as well as their, their businesses?
- [12:46]
Nico Simcoe
So the employers are benefiting primarily with the ability to sell a benefit that is still not kind of status quo. So they can be differentiated when they hire people and they can convince people to come work at their place instead of the place across the street. And they benefit by having people want to go work there. People will think twice before quitting a job with those kinds of benefits. Of course, it's not the whole thing, but it does help. And then finally, they'll also have less absenteeism that comes out of people not feeling like they just need to go work a gig job for half a day because they need cash right now.
- [13:23]
Greg Kilstrom
Right, right. Yeah. And so last topic I want to talk about related to all of this, but diving a little bit more into as we see, there's certainly different generations have different preferences, different needs and things. And so we've got Gen Z continuing to enter the workforce and their expectations are certainly shaping how employers are looking at employee benefits and things like we've discussed. So considering this increasing presence of Gen Z in the workforce, you know, are there, you know, are there different key factors or, you know, what key factors should employers be considering to meet those expectations, particularly in terms of things like financial, wellness and benefits?
- [14:09]
Nico Simcoe
Yeah, I think the idea is to really stay attuned to what motivates somebody to be at their place of work and the culture that they're building and the environment that they're building for them. The reality is most employees who leave leave because it's not the right culture or because their pay is just completely unfavorable. But sometimes if as a business, you're not able to afford above market comp, you might have a chance of getting as good, if not as better employees to come in and then be retained. If you build an amazing culture, it of course requires more work, it requires to have a mission, it requires to have something bigger than what they currently have, but it's not impossible. And so thinking of that holistically, and there's many forms of technology they can use, they can use for workforce management. We don't do that, of course, but there's this amazing workforce management solutions these days that are out there. One that I can shout out is, is. Is seven shifts in the, in the restaurant space. You know, there's also this amazing company called, called, called When I Work. You know, those are brands that are. That have done an amazing job at like, just delighting their customers. And so, you know, thinking of that holistically in the employee experience, like you're going to retain your employees much more than the person across the street because, you know, most businesses unfortunately don't care that much about their stuff.
- [15:38]
Greg Kilstrom
Yeah, yeah. I mean, so are you seeing that there's marked shifts between generations, you know, and what they need, or, you know, a lot of what you're talking about seems like these are just general truths of, you know, people want financial security, they, they need work, but, you know, they want financial security, they want their employers to take care of them. And, you know, when they do, they can focus and all those things. But, you know, do you see any marked sh. From, you know, millennials to Gen Z to, you know, in terms of any, you know, any priorities?
- [16:16]
Nico Simcoe
Yeah, the view is that as crazy as may sound, and it might be like, not the answer you're necessarily looking for is that Gen Z is, at the end of the day, yes, they're more connected. You know, yes, they use words that maybe other generations don't use. Yes, they spend a lot of time on social media, but they're looking for the same stuff as we all do. Right. They're looking for something aspirational, but they also want to make a living. And so I would say, like, I would advise not to create kind of almost a distinction there, but to kind of live with the times. And, you know, one of the things that we talk a lot about, even at Claire internally, is like the need to be working out of an office, working, working from home. And I think if you make decisions as an employer with common sense. Right. I think you can get a lot more out of your employees because a lot of people try to optimize for the rule. Right. Or they try to optimize for things that are to some extent, academically or hypothetically correct. But it doesn't necessarily mean that's the right thing for common sense of what's going on right now in your business. Oftentimes those things are the same, but sometimes they're not. And when there's that level of discrepancy that's I think what hurts a lot, the culture and that's what help, you know, that hurts with Jay Z years.
- [17:31]
Greg Kilstrom
Yeah.
- [17:32]
Nico Simcoe
So I'd say like a lot of it applies and I think that also means you got to treat the Gen Z. I want to find the right word but it's like population or like you know, members of that, of that age group the same way you treat everybody else. And if that means that, you know, if you have an in office policy because for a particular job, you know, you need these people, you know, on a, on a whiteboard or you need to make sales calls like I don't think we should adapt that if it's known that it's best for the business.
- [18:03]
Greg Kilstrom
Right.
- [18:04]
Nico Simcoe
Because I think there's, I think that in the long run it will go back to, there's going to be a reversal to the mean around, you know, what makes sense from business and also like employee experience and employee growth perspective that you know, will kind of be the same across different generations.
- [18:22]
Greg Kilstrom
Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know it sounds like, and I've run into this in marketing work and you know, I think Google was early on in, in this idea of, you know, it's, it's kind of life moments and places that we're at that are a lot more, I guess unifying or however you want to look at it than it is, you know, an arbitrary age. So in other words, you know, if somebody in Gen Z is starting a family and someone, a Gen Xer like myself is starting a family, you know, there's a lot of things that tie us. We have a lot of similar needs, maybe some different because you know, different, different stage in life, but there's a lot of similarities there. And you know, from a financial and a, a wellness perspective, there might be a lot of similarities there as well. So I mean it sounds like that's kind of what you're saying as well. Is that, is that true?
- [19:13]
Nico Simcoe
That's true. Yep.
- [19:14]
Greg Kilstrom
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Well Nico, thanks for joining us today. Got one last question for you before we wrap up here and you know, want to look ahead a few years here and you know we talked about kind of, I would call it the win win win is you know, when, when companies are treating their employees well, not only did both of those groups benefit, but their, their end customers benefit as well. But if you could look out a few years, you know, what, what are you seeing? What do you have your eye on as far as financial, wellness and employee benefits that companies should be preparing for?
- [19:52]
Nico Simcoe
Yeah, I think, I think from a benefit standpoint, I'm a big believer that for most Americans, and especially for the hourly workforce, banking with a bank that is completely separate from all of the data that your employer has is going to be seen as a liability, not as an asset. Right now we're thinking of a bank as an asset, right? You have this thing, gets your paycheck, but I think it's going to become a liability. Why? Because you're going to have a lost opportunity of having better access to credit, better access to credit, building better access to pre tax benefits such as commuting and 401k. And I think it's about time financial services gets tied back to the world of employment.
- [20:33]
Greg Kilstrom
That's great. That's great. Well, again, I'd like to thank Nico Simcoe, Founder and CEO of Claire, for joining the show. For more information about Nico and Claire's approach to financial wellness and on demand, pay for follow the links in the show Notes thanks again for listening to the B2B Agility podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please take a minute to subscribe and leave us a rating so that others can find the show more easily. You can access more episodes of the show at www.b2bagility.com. That's B2B agility.com while you're there, check out my series of best selling agile brand guides covering a wide variety of marketing technology topics topics. Or you can search for Greg Kilstrom on Amazon. Until next time, stay focused and stay agile.
- [21:28]
T-Mobile Announcer
Breaking News T Mobile Network outperforms expectations in all sectors because T Mobile helps keep you connected from the heart of Portland to right where you are on America's largest 5G network switch. Now keep your phone and T Mobile will pay it off up to $800 per line via prepaid card. Visit your local T Mobile location or learn more at t mobile.com. keepAndSwitch up to 4 lines of your virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days qualifying unlocked device, credit service report in 90 plus days device ineligible carrier and timely redemption required Card is no cash access and expires in six months.