How Branch Helped StaffHealth Save Time and Money While Boosting Retention
Background
StaffHealth is a leading per diem staffing agency for registered nurses (RNs), LPNs (licensed practical nurses), certified nursing assistants (CNAs), allied healthcare professionals, and other healthcare workers. They staff nursing facilities, senior living communities, and various healthcare centers across the country, filling roles that are crucial for daily operations and patient care. Anthony Miller, Director of Operations for StaffHealth, says that prior to Branch, his team used another solution to power ExpressPay, their faster payments offering for clinicians. However, several challenges prompted them to make the switch.
Facing slow onboarding and stressful prefunding
StaffHealth’s previous solution presented several obstacles for Miller and his team. For one, the other offering required prefunding. This meant that Miller had to constantly speculate on how much money to keep in the funding account—which became difficult when planning for holiday weekends.
“I was the person who liked holidays the least,” Miller explains, “Because I’d have to basically speculate on a Friday what we’d have to pay out over the entire weekend. There was an immense pressure to get the wire out by Friday night, because if I didn’t, people wouldn’t get paid.”
As any business leader knows, even a small issue in payments can quickly become an operational nightmare—something Miller wanted to avoid.
“As soon as you don’t pay someone that is expecting to get paid, word spreads very quickly—those people go work somewhere else."
Another drawback of StaffHealth’s previous payments solution was that a physical card was required to send and receive payments. This became problematic because nursing professionals tend to move around frequently, especially in today’s on-demand economy where healthcare professionals often pack up and travel to wherever demand is highest. Miller and his team would spend weeks tracking down someone’s latest location, leading to time, resources, and money being wasted on shipping someone their physical card to start receiving payments.
“We were probably seeing a 25-30% loss of cards that we mailed out,” says Miller. This slowed down the onboarding process, causing frustrations for both Miller’s team and clinicians. “People want to get paid right away; having to wait and then use UPS to send another card was a hassle.”
Saving time, hassle, and $5,000 a month
When Miller and his team heard about Branch, they were pleased to discover that while a physical card is included, workers can start receiving payments on Day 1 with their digital card and wallet, which also allows users to enable Apple Pay or Google Pay. This meant someone could get onboarded with Branch in minutes and start receiving their pay that same day—a game-changer for StaffHealth and their clinicians. Plus, they didn’t have to spend money sending out new cards.
“Branch has certainly saved us money, because now we don’t have that $5,000 a month expenditure for UPS,” cites Miller.
Plus, the switch eliminated the hassle of having to pre-fund an account. With Branch, StaffHealth no longer has to deal with the time and expenses involved in pre-funding or managing a separate account altogether. Those Friday nights spent trying to guess how much to fund an account with for the weekend ahead are a thing of the past now—something that’s a welcome change for Miller and his team.
Miller also says his clinicians appreciate the sophisticated but simple-to-use app that Branch offers, and how easy it is to get onboarded and paid right away. “It’s just a good experience the whole way around,” he says.
Reducing absenteeism and boosting retention
Ultimately, being able to offer Branch to clinicians has helped StaffHealth grow their business by providing a better payments experience for every clinician that they work with.
“The minute we started offering same-day pay, that’s what really helped our business to grow,” Miller says. He also notes that it’s been a tremendous recruiting tool and retention booster, providing an instant incentive for people to show up to work each day.
“Especially with CNAs, no-call and no-shows are the worst outcome imaginable. Same-day pay has been the #1 tool in reducing the level of no-call, no-shows we experience.”
Before Branch, Miller reports that they would have a 30% no-call, no-show rate on any given day. Now, that rate has dropped to less than 5% because of the instant gratification same-day pay provides; clinicians know they can work a shift and get paid right away through Branch.
By implementing Branch, Miller and his team have reduced absenteeism, boosted retention, and provided an experience that keeps clinicians coming back to pick up shifts each month. He’s also a fan of the sleek card design; something that may seem minuscule but has served as a helpful reminder of the power of same-day pay.
“If someone hasn’t worked for us in a while, seeing their Branch Card in their wallet is a constant reminder that they can go and pick up a shift and be able to pay that bill that they need to pay, or put gas in their car, or whatever it is they need to do. Hopefully that helps them come back to us—for that gratification of getting paid right after they work.”
