Rethinking Your Worker Loyalty Program? Here Are 4 Things You Can’t Afford To Miss

⏰ Est. reading time: 3 mins

💡 What you’ll learn:

• The value of worker loyalty programs for gig platforms
• What to include in your worker loyalty program
• How fast pay and tiered rewards can motivate top performers

For gig platforms today, the key challenge today isn’t just recruiting new workers, but incentivizing the ones you already have—particularly your top performers. For many platforms, this pool of high achievers often carry out the bulk of the work on your platform, making it particularly crucial that you keep them engaged. 

One of the best ways to do this is by fine-tuning your worker loyalty program. 

Why Gig Platforms Need Worker Loyalty Programs In the First Place

Worker loyalty programs come in all shapes and sizes; you can choose to offer tier-based rewards, performance-based bonuses, and beyond. But one thing is true across the board: the rewards you’re offering can’t just be for show. They need to make a real, day-to-day impact on the people who power your business.  But why?

Each gig worker functions like an independent business owner—yet they’re the lifeblood of your business. With a plethora of choices, they’ve decided to work with you. When you offer something that your competitor isn’t offering, you’re making a big gesture to these small business owners. You’re saying that you value their decision to work with your platform above. 

What To Include in Your Worker Loyalty Program

So, how can you be sure what you’re offering is making a difference to them? We’re breaking down four critical offerings to consider as you evaluate your worker loyalty program. These perks have the potential to boost engagement, shift pickup, and performance among your workforce, which can help you more efficiently scale your platform. 

1. Fast pay

Building greater loyalty with your top performers is crucial to the success of your app or platform. One way to achieve this is by offering a fast, seamless payout experience.

Among gig workers, fast pay has increasingly become the expectation. According to our Gig and Staffing Report, more than half of gig workers seek out platforms specifically for the potential to be paid faster. However, many companies are still paying out workers in outdated ways. These methods may leave workers waiting for their earnings overnight or over the course of a weekend. 

With the advent of embedded finance, you can integrate fast pay directly into your app or platform in order to pay workers any time, day or night. Workers can get paid immediately—as soon as they complete a job, delivery, or ride. 

That’s what companies like Uber have turned to Branch for: to help them deliver fast, seamless payments—all from an embedded payments experience directly within their existing app. Uber can now reward top performers with the Uber Pro Card, a custom branded debit card and wallet powered by Branch that allows them to pay drivers after every ride or delivery.

2. Cashback rewards

Along with fast payments, cashback rewards are a crucial incentive for top performers. And it’s one you can add on top of a custom card and wallet experience. 

You can tier the cashback rewards so that top workers get the best cash back. By creating rich rewards experiences at the peak level of performance, workers are incentivized to reach the highest tier, motivating them to work more or provide better service to unlock the best rewards.

For example, when Instacart was looking to reward their top shoppers, they asked us to help them create the Instacart Shopper Rewards. Now, top shoppers are given a card and wallet experience, making fast payouts a breeze, and also rewarded with cash back on everyday purchases. Instacart’s Diamond Shoppers—the app’s top performers—get the highest cash back on fuel and other purchases.

Regardless of what industry you’re in, incentivizing top performers with ways to save money and reinvest it back into their work can translate to more jobs, rides, or deliveries on your app—and that’s a win-win.

3. Priority or exclusive access

Certain platforms have also chosen to reward top performers with special access to memberships or clubs. Consider how different tiers of American Express cardholders provide access to different airport lounges, for example. You can build the same thing with a worker loyalty program by rewarding top performers with exclusive access to things that may benefit them.

You might even consider rewarding top earners on your platform with first access to the best paying or closest jobs—or even the ability to set preferred working hours. Providing this added flexibility and first access is a great way to show top performers you value them.

4. Tiered access to bonuses

You may also consider expanding and growing your incentive programs by using a platform that helps manage time and earnings data in an accessible way, allowing you to easily disburse bonuses to workers who hit certain goals. This is what last-mile delivery service for multi-family communities Fetch achieved with Branch. 

“The way Branch is set up, you can easily manage the information and say to a delivery partner: hey, you’ve been here for this long, you’ve earned this tier of pay, here’s a bonus for hitting that tier—which has improved retention and helped our delivery partners reach their personal goals,” shared Grant Rogers, Driver Operations Manager at Fetch.

Leveraging Branch has allowed Fetch to grow their Preferred Driver Program—where 75% of deliveries are made by 25% of the network—and create a pool of highly engaged delivery partners.

How Embedded Finance Can Upgrade Your Worker Loyalty Programs

Worker loyalty programs need to be carefully designed to reward performance while also ensuring they benefit your business. 

Branch has partnered with workplaces across industries to help them incentivize top performers, allowing them to scale their platforms and unlock new revenue streams while rewarding the people who power them.  Want to discover how your company can do the same? 

Learn more here.