How Reser’s Fine Foods Turned Pay Flexibility into a Retention Advantage

The Challenge:

Competing for Hourly Talent in a Market That Expects More

Reser’s Fine Foods operates large-scale food production facilities with a predominantly hourly workforce. As the labor market for frontline workers has tightened, employees have more options and more awareness of the benefits packages employers offer.
As Earned Wage Access¹ has grown more common among competing employers, Reser’s saw an opportunity to get ahead of the curve, adding a benefit that employees increasingly value before it became a gap in their offer.

At the same time, the existing payroll advance process—where employees would request draws against upcoming pay—was creating steady administrative friction for the HR and payroll team. They needed a solution that could:

• Give employees real-time financial flexibility without disrupting payroll

• Educe the manual burden of processing advance requests

• Position Reser’s competitively as an employer of choice

The Solution:

Payactiv Embedded into the Employee Experience

Reser’s Fine Foods implemented Payactiv as an employer-sponsored Earned Wage Access¹ program, giving employees access to a portion of their earned wages between paychecks.
Reser’s had already standardized on UKG as its HCM platform, so when a UKG representative introduced Payactiv, the solution fit naturally into their existing ecosystem. With a proven integration already in place, the team could focus on the workforce impact rather than implementation complexity. The implementation required:

• No disruption to existing biweekly pay cycles

• No payroll infrastructure overhaul

• No increase in employer cost

Promotion was kept simple and organic: HR teams posted flyers in breakrooms, and when employees requested a payroll advance, the payroll team redirected them to Payactiv instead. The program spread from there.

Strategic Value

When Payactiv Solved More Than a Wellness Problem

The clearest proof of Payactiv’s operational value came when Reser’s acquired a company that had been paying its employees weekly. Reser’s biweekly payroll infrastructure couldn’t absorb a weekly pay cadence without significant cost and complexity. But simply switching those employees to biweekly pay risked damaging morale and accelerating attrition in a freshly acquired workforce.
Payactiv bridged the gap.

Employees who had expected weekly access to their pay could now access their earned wages on demand, without Reser’s having to restructure payroll operations or take on additional vendor overhead.

“We recently acquired a company that paid weekly. We do not have the resources for a weekly payroll, and Payactiv has solved the problem.”

Teri Shook, Manager, HRIS and Payroll

Employee and Employer Impact

A Benefit Employees Actually Use

The impact of Payactiv at Reser’s extends well beyond employee sentiment:

• 44% higher retention among active Payactiv users versus non-users
• Payroll advance requests have effectively been eliminated, reducing administrative overhead for the HR and payroll team
• Post-acquisition workforce stabilized without payroll restructuring

What began as a competitive benefits decision has become embedded in how Reser’s operates.

Measurable Workforce Outcomes

Retention data tells part of the story. Usage data tells the rest. An 82% monthly active user rate means the majority of enrolled employees are accessing Payactiv regularly, not just signing up and forgetting it exists. For a frontline workforce managing everyday financial pressures like rent, utilities, and unexpected bills, on-demand wage access has become a consistent part of how they manage their finances between paychecks.