Customer Story

Global Event Planning Company, Encore, Supports Frontline Workers With Overtime Savings Program, UKG Technology

  • UKG Wallet™ enables frontline workers to save their hard-earned overtime pay for future need periods

  • The Overtime Savings Program is another way to support Encore’s team members so that they can be at their best in delivering for their customers

  • Nearly 30% of Encore’s employees adopted UKG Wallet, and the organization provided $10 million in earned wages during the first year of deployment

A young woman in a black suit is standing at a front desk and talking on the phone.

Encore is a global event technology and production services provider and Great Place To Work® Certified™ organization. It is pioneering a first-of-its-kind Overtime Savings Program in the U.S. with UKG technology to further provide financial wellness and stability to its frontline workforce.

Challenges

For both Encore and UKG, business and employee retention are critical for outstanding service delivery. To further solve the earnings inconsistency caused by a seasonal industry and understanding the financial challenges and economic landscape across the U.S., together, the organizations innovated a solution in UKG Wallet™ — the UKG earned wage access and financial wellness platform — that allows frontline workers to save their hard-earned overtime pay for future need periods.

“Encore has always believed its team members are the heart of our story. This people-first mindset motivates us to constantly be evolving our team member experience and innovate around challenges, like the impact of seasonality, that the industry previously viewed as immutable,” said Ben Erwin, president and CEO of Encore.

Encore employs 12,000 team members who provide event technology and production services at 2,200 hotels and conference venues in 20 countries. The hospitality industry, like many service industries, experiences seasonal fluctuations, when workers’ hours fluctuate from ample overtime to fewer scheduled hours in off-season periods. The seasonality of the hospitality industry creates a challenge for workers looking for consistent earnings, as well as companies striving to retain talent.

According to a new global study by UKG of nearly 13,000 frontline employees and managers in 11 countries, pay and compensation is the single most important factor for frontline workers (31%) when choosing an employer. Additionally, financial wellness benefits were rated the most important factor by 19% of frontline workers.

Solutions

Encore’s Overtime Savings Program was created as a direct result of actively listening to employees’ challenges and feedback and, upon early launch of the program, usage increased 10 times over the prior year’s period.

“We established the program as another way to support our team members so that they can be at their best in delivering for our customers,” said Erwin. “With this innovation, they can better plan and save their premium overtime pay for periods of the year when they might not work as many hours. Providing this capability and funding a company-paid match for a portion of the savings should motivate financial wellness and enable them to continue to build their career with Encore. Team member reaction tells us we are on to something.”

“We established the program as another way to support our team members so that they can be at their best in delivering for our customers.” 

Ben Erwin

President and CEO of Encore

Results

A 15-year customer already leveraging the AI-powered UKG Pro® suite, Encore added the UKG Wallet solution to its UKG portfolio in 2023 to give people access to their wages when and where they need it, as well as financial wellness tools. Nearly 30% of Encore’s employees adopted UKG Wallet, and the organization provided $10 million in earned wages during the first year of deployment. The UKG Wallet platform has additionally increased employee retention at Encore by 14%, and the new offerings further underscore the organization’s commitment to being a Great Place To Work.

“Financial stress is not a problem isolated to our industry, it’s a stressor for nearly everyone,” said Charlie Young, chief human resources officer at Encore. “Nearly 70% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck[1] and Americans spent $9B in bank overdraft fees in 2023. The more we can do to reduce stress for our team members, the more focused they can be on our customers. We are successful in the event production business because of the unique combination of our technical expertise, hospitality mindset and ability to work under pressure and through challenges. Seasonal fluctuations are part of our business, but with a partner like UKG that understands every industry has unique challenges, we were able to innovate to support those unique needs to make our team members’ lives better.”

Encore’s success with UKG Wallet is just the latest in its history with UKG. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Encore leveraged people analytics in UKG to recover $48 million in tax credits and subsidies from the U.S. and Canadian governments, which it used to keep hundreds of employees on active status.

[1] Forbes Advisor 2023 Survey: How Many Americans are Living Paycheck to Paycheck? https://www.forbes.com/advisor/banking/living-paycheck-to-paycheck-statistics-2024/

 

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