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How to Improve Attendance and Shift Filling with a Holistic Employee Benefit

A Holistic Benefit That Actually Fills Shifts: Rethinking Employee Attendance in Australia

The scene is all too familiar for managers in hospitality, retail, and healthcare. It’s 8:00 AM on a busy day, and a crucial shift remains unfilled. The phone calls go to voicemail. The text messages are left on “read”. This is not just a scheduling headache; it’s a multi-billion dollar problem.

In Australia, unplanned absenteeism is costing organisations an estimated $33 billion every year. For managers on the ground, the challenge is even more immediate. In the hospitality sector, a staggering 62% of operators report they cannot find enough staff to meet current demand, and 80% struggle to fill open positions.

For decades, we’ve blamed this on a lack of engagement, poor culture, or the classic “sickie”. We’ve offered free fruit, discounted gym memberships, and mindfulness apps. Yet, the rosters remain a puzzle, and attendance remains unpredictable.

Why? Because we’ve been treating the symptoms, not the cause.

The truth is, for a huge portion of the Australian workforce, the primary driver of absence, disengagement, and burnout is not a lack of perks. It is acute, persistent financial stress.

The Financial Stress Epidemic

Cost-of-living pressures have created a financial wellbeing crisis. Recent Australian data shows that nearly one in two workers is experiencing financial stress, and one in four admits it directly affects their ability to perform at work.

This is not a background worry; it is a full-blown productivity crisis. Research from AMP found that financially stressed employees lose, on average, 6.9 hours of productive work per week. That is nearly a full day’s work, per employee, lost to distraction, anxiety, and the mental fog of money worries.

This stress is also a top four cause of unscheduled absences. When an employee is deciding between paying for petrol to get to work or covering an unexpected medical bill, the choice is impossible. When they are exhausted from the anxiety of a paycheck-to-paycheck cycle, their resilience plummets, and their susceptibility to illness and burnout skyrockets.

A truly “holistic” employee benefit, therefore, cannot just focus on the mental and physical. It must first address the foundational layer: financial health. An employee cannot be “present” for a mindfulness seminar if their mind is consumed by a looming energy bill.

The Practical Power of a New Holistic Benefit

This is where a new generation of employee benefits, centred on financial flexibility, is changing the game. The most powerful of these is Earned Wage Access (EWA).

EWA is simple: it gives employees access to the wages they have already earned, whenever they need them. It is not a loan, and it is not an advance. It is their money, on demand.

This single tool directly dismantles the two biggest drivers of absenteeism and unfilled shifts: immediate financial barriers and a lack of immediate reward.

1. It Removes Immediate Barriers to Attendance Think of the casual employee whose car is out of petrol the day before payday. Or the parent who needs to pay for emergency childcare to cover their shift. For a person in financial stress, an unexpected $50 expense can be the difference between coming to work and calling in sick. An unplanned absence can cost a business up to $340 per day, yet the problem could have been solved with instant access to a small amount of the employee’s own earned wages. EWA provides a safety net that eliminates these purely logistical, finance-based absences.

2. It Powerfully Incentivises Shift Filling For shift-based industries, EWA is a rostering super-tool. Managers no longer have to beg staff to pick up an unpopular Friday night or public holiday shift. The incentive is built in. When an employee knows they can work that shift and access their pay for it immediately after, their entire perspective changes. The reward is no longer a distant number on a payslip two weeks away; it is tangible, immediate, and useful.

This is not theoretical. It is delivering real-world results for Australian businesses.

Ethan Reid, a Control Officer at the Rocky Sports Club, has seen this impact firsthand. “Everything has been set up for us. Being able to offer our employees their money straight after a shift is a huge drawcard. We use Paytime in our recruitment advertising.”

As Ethan points out, the benefit extends beyond attendance. It becomes a powerful tool for talent acquisition in a market where 79% of employees would switch jobs to a company that offered EWA.

Beyond a Quick Fix: The Truly Holistic Approach

The data backing this approach is compelling. Studies have shown that organisations implementing EWA can decrease absenteeism by 13% and reduce unfilled shifts by as much as 62%.

However, a true thought leader knows that access to cash is only half the solution. Handing someone a lifebuoy is one thing; teaching them to swim is another.

A truly holistic financial benefit cannot just treat the symptom (lack of cash flow). It must also address the cause (financial literacy and habits). This is the crucial difference between a simple “cash-out” button and a genuine wellbeing platform.

At Paytime, we couple the instant access of EWA with a full suite of financial wellbeing tools. We provide access to budgeting tools that help employees plan, financial literacy resources that help them learn, and connections to qualified financial counsellors who can help them build a stronger future. This integrated ecosystem ensures that EWA functions as a path away from financial stress, not a temporary patch.

The Future of the Full Roster

The battle for attendance and retention will not be won with token gestures. It will be won by organisations brave enough to address the real, pressing challenges their employees face.

Australian businesses are struggling with absenteeism and shift-filling because their people are struggling with financial stress. By adopting a truly holistic wellbeing strategy that places financial health at its centre, employers can do more than just fill a shift. They can reduce burnout, build loyalty, and attract the best talent.

When you give your team the tools to manage their financial lives with dignity and control, they reward you with the one thing you cannot buy: their presence, their focus, and their engagement.

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