In a survey conducted throughout Costa Rica, 39.1% of workers answered that they would prefer to access their salary when they decide they need it and not when the employer pays it. This preference responds to a greater need for control over income and stability, in the current situation
About 40% of the country’s salaried people would prefer an “on-demand” access modality to their income; that is, when they need it and not when the employer pays for it. This is evidenced by the Study of perception of the administrative area and habits in personal finance commissioned by Kiru, a new application and business platform for the management of payroll and human resources.
The technological solution announces its launch for all of Latin America with the publication of the survey results. Costa Rica is its first country of operation and, from here, it plans to expand to several countries in the region.
The current situation, caused by the global crisis of COVID-19, activated the preference of this modality in wage earners, due to the fact that people seek income control mechanisms and greater stability. The people surveyed who are more willing to access their money on demand are men who live outside the Greater Metropolitan Area whose ages range between 18 and 35 years.
“It is undeniable that the impacts of the pandemic also affected people who kept their jobs or who managed to find their way into the job market during these difficult times. It was important for us to evaluate how they perceive their worker-employer relationship and measure in what way employers can contribute to the financial health of their employees”, commented Daniel Hernández, Kiru’s sales director for Latin America.
More reliance on technology
As the results of the study show, employers could rely on technology to solve many of the perception challenges faced by their employees, among them:
• 44.9% of wage earners are not satisfied with the frequency of payment of their salary.
• 33.8% of the people surveyed do not perceive transparent management of the income they receive from their employer.
• Only 26.6% of the survey participants had facilities to access information on the payment of their salary.
• Only 9.5% of wage earners had fluid communication with the department in charge of depositing their wages.
These data are compatible with the panorama of the report Sectors and companies facing COVID-19: emergency and reactivation of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). In this, it is stated that “digital technologies will be key in the new operating model of companies” and that these “will have to advance in the search for greater efficiency and productivity”.
A sample of 800 people responded to the survey commissioned by Kiru. Men and women, between the ages of 18 and 55, participated; that is, residents of the entire country and who, at the time of the interview, had a formal job (they are on the payroll of a company and receive an employer order). The questionnaires were completed in the first quarter of 2021.
Automation to improve the employee-employer relationship
The COVID-19 crisis presented new challenges in human resource management, including:
• Monitoring the entry and exit of remote personnel without access to badges or fingerprint capture machines.
• Real-time geolocation of the company’s mobile units and remote employees
• Replacement of face-to-face procedures (disabilities, vacations, permits) with digital ones
• Modification of national holidays
• Issuance of special circulation permits
• Changes in the calculation of settlement payments
• Temporary or permanent adjustments to working hours
Companies of all sizes had to adapt as quickly as possible to continue operations. This was the opportunity that Kiru found to position itself as a technological ally that, through the automation it offers through an integral ecosystem, could facilitate a better relationship between companies and their collaborators.
“Kiru allows companies of all sizes not only to manage their payroll efficiently and with a wide reduction in errors, but it also makes possible the transparent flow of data between the employer and the collaborators. In addition, through strategic alliances, benefits, such as discounts, may eventually be offered through the platform”, Hernández added.
Kiru is configured with all the regulations in force in Costa Rica regarding taxes and social charges, thus minimizing human error in payroll calculations and in compliance with tax obligations. In addition, it is not only a program that works for the employer, but each employee becomes a user and administrator of their data through a mobile application.
