Background

Hoogland Restaurant Group (HRG) is the largest owner and operator of Marco's Pizza franchises, with 130+ locations. HRG is part of Highland Ventures, a national venture management company that operates in the real estate, foodservice and healthcare industries, while also evaluating other industries for investment. We spoke with Highland Ventures' Director of HR, Stephanie Forsberg, and Payroll Manager, Veronica Duda, about why they chose to implement Branch at their Marco's Pizza locations.

They shared how Branch has supported their hospitality staff with daily payouts of tips and mileage reimbursements, earned wage access, and a direct deposit option through the Branch Card—and the positive impact these changes have had.

Searching To Streamline Payday With a Modern Paycard + EWA Provider

Initially, HRG was looking for a paycard solution for their employees that could streamline the payroll process. They were originally paying some employees with paper checks, which cost money to print and mail. A paycard would be more cost-effective and also allow staff members without an existing bank account an easier, digital way to get their wages.

“There are a lot of people in entry-level positions that don’t have bank accounts. We wanted people on direct deposit because they receive their money faster and there isn’t the chance of their check getting lost in the mail,” says Forsberg.

They wanted a paycard provider that could simplify this process, as well as provide the added benefit of earned wage access (EWA). EWA allows employees to take advances of up to 50% of their next paycheck—something that can have a meaningful impact when dealing with unexpected expenses like a car repair or medical bill. 

HRG began to explore a few different options, but found some paycard and EWA providers came with excessive fees for employees—even just to take an advance or access their pay.

“With [other solutions] we saw that employees would have to pay to take an advance; we didn’t want that,” says Duda. 

In order for employees to take advantage of EWA without the stress of excessive fees, the HRG team had to find a solution that was free for employees to use. When they discovered Branch, they were thrilled that the platform not only offered free EWA and a modern paycard solution, but that these tools were easy to use.

Smooth Rollout, Easy Automation

Even though HRG utilized multiple tools and systems to process payouts, integrating Branch was relatively painless. 

“We have a lot of different systems with feeds coming in and out, but Branch made the process very smooth, and the team was incredibly down to earth. They were very gracious to explain things in layman’s terms, not code,” says Duda. 

They were quickly able to launch the Branch paycard solution and earned wage access offering at their Marco's Pizza locations without a lot of lift from their end.

“It’s been seamless,” says Duda. “We have it set up where they can advance up to 50% of their paycheck if needed, and their hours feed in from our system into Branch at the end of every day.”

Forsberg echoes this sentiment, noting how switching to Branch has allowed them to focus more on the guest experience than administrative hassle.

“The process is largely automated, which reduces the administrative burden on our team," Forsberg says. "It's saved our team time and allows us to provide better service to our guests.”

Satisfied with how easily the paycard and EWA offering were to implement, the HRG team started to notice another payout solution that could help both their business and their employees: cashless tip payouts.

Boosting Efficiency and Employee Satisfaction With Seamless, Same-Day Tips and Mileage Payouts

Even though HRG had initially chosen Branch to deliver an EWA program and paycard solution to their employees, they also decided to add cashless tips and mileage reimbursement as an offering to solve an additional pain point.

Up until that point, they were still paying out employee tips in cash each night. But because many customers aren't paying in cash anymore, this required Marco’s Pizza managers to make frequent trips to the bank to take cash out—sometimes from their personal accounts.

“Managers would sometimes have to take money out of their own personal bank accounts to fund these tips, and submit it to accounting to get their money back,” explains Forsberg. 

Not only was this time-consuming, but it presented safety concerns as well. Shuffling large amounts of cash to their restaurant felt like a risk—and it was a responsibility they couldn’t hand off to just anyone.

“We didn’t want to have a safe full of money,” says Duda, “and with turnover like it was, finding someone we could authorize to go withdraw money from our corporate account was a growing pain.” 

There was also the fact that cash tip payouts didn’t provide a clear audit trail to verify payment. It was hard to accurately confirm whether or not someone had been tipped out at the end of each shift. Switching to Branch offered a solution to this, allowing HRG to send tip payouts and mileage reimbursements to their employees right after each shift, without the need to handle cash or maintain a safe full of money. 

Happier Employees, Painless Payouts

Now HRG leverages Branch for a paycard solution, same-day cashless tips, and earned wage access—all through one centralized platform. The daily hassles of cash handling are gone, and employees can now receive their tips as well as any mileage reimbursements after every shift, right to their account. 

“We no longer have that loophole of wondering ‘where did that money go? Or someone claiming not to have been tipped out yet. We have it running four times a day so people get tipped out late morning, early afternoon, dinner rush, and at the end of the day,” says Duda. “It’s allowed everything to be much more streamlined.”

Not only has this provided an easier way to verify payments and eliminated the risk of having cash on hand, but it’s also made operations much more efficient for payroll and managers alike. 

“Everything’s in the system and so at the end of the night they get their tips. Most of it is automated, so it’s not something we have to constantly touch," says Forsberg.

Perhaps most importantly, Marco’s Pizzas employees are happy with the change, being able to take home their tip earnings and any mileage reimbursements right after they work—something that's a clear competitive advantage against restaurants still using outdated tip payout processes.

“It’s definitely become a selling point with our delivery drivers,” says Duda. “Some restaurants put tips onto paychecks, making employees wait two weeks. If someone can work a shift and walk out with tips that day, that’s a huge advantage.”

Switching to Branch has not only allowed HRG to save time and money while streamlining operations, but it’s provided the fast, flexible payouts they view as critical to employee retention and engagement in today’s job market. 

“Retaining employees in the restaurant industry is already very difficult. I think if we hadn’t offered Branch, we would have lost more people,” says Forsberg. 

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Hear more about HRG's switch to Branch during our free, live webinar on October 20! Register here.