
There are a few days I’ll never forget in my career – and today is one of them. I’m excited to announce that Employment Hero has just launched the world’s first employment superapp, Swag. It rolls easier work, rewarding careers, on-demand pay, and supercharged savings into one – helping you attract and retain great people while empowering your team to get more out of work and life.
We all know that the world’s in a challenging place right now with sluggish growth, rising interest rates, record low unemployment and rocketing cost of living pressures. These factors are driving up overheads and making it harder for businesses to operate and grow.
It’s abundantly clear that being an employer right now is bloody tough – and the conditions we’re facing are making employment harder, not easier.
I believe that Employment Hero is doing a great job in empowering employers to manage employment with more confidence. However, given the current challenging times and external factors, we want to do even more to help.
Our mission is to make employment easier and more valuable for everyone, so when we were thinking about the next phase of Employment Hero, this was our driving force. We asked the question: How can we bring employees and employers closer so both sides of the employment equation benefit?
And that’s where Swag comes in.
For employers, Swag provides that crucial employer brand boost you’ve been looking for. With unique rewards, exclusive discounts and revolutionary money features, Swag helps you attract great people in a highly competitive talent market. It’s also a powerful engagement and retention tool, giving you the ability to recognise great work, provide internal development opportunities, and show employees you’re invested in their wellbeing beyond the workplace.
For employees, Swag rolls easier work, rewarding careers, flexible pay and exclusive perks, savings and benefits into one app. It’s designed to help your employees fight the cost of living crisis, take control of their finances, and reach their full potential at work.
I strongly believe that when people aren’t stressed about work and pay, they can bring their best selves to work each day – and that’s why I’m so excited to announce this world-first employment superapp.
What does this mean for you as an employer?
From now, Swag will automatically replace the Employment Hero mobile app. This new and improved app will be available to every business, every employee and every candidate on our platform – for free. Swag takes the best parts of the existing Employment Hero app, and adds exciting new features like an internal jobs board, on-demand pay, inflation-fighting discounts, and cashback offers with leading brands.
For employers:
Swag makes it easier to attract, retain, manage, pay and reward their people. Swag can save your business thousands of dollars each year on recruitment, job board advertising costs, rewards and retention.
For employees:
Swag makes employment more rewarding when it comes to working, spending, saving and advancing their career. Swag can save your people thousands of dollars a year with savings, discounts and rewards.
That’s tens of thousands of dollars of potential value – for free.
If you want to learn more about what Swag means for you as an employer, check out our employer FAQ page here. I encourage you to explore the factsheets and FAQs to unlock the value Swag can provide to you and your employees. Give your team the best experience and encourage your employees to switch to Swag.
Please note: the Employment Hero desktop product will stay Employment Hero branded. App features will also depend on which region you or your team are located.
What does Swag mean for your employees?
Swag will give your employees access to exclusive discounts and rewards that make their money stretch further. We have the ability to do this by leveraging the collective buying power of more than 200,000 SMEs and 1 million employees across our platform, giving them access to unique benefits, perks and discounts.
The new app will still have all the great features you love in the Employment Hero app along with brand new ones, all designed to help your team manage work admin, achieve financial wellbeing, discover internal development opportunities and access exclusive perks. It’s an easier way to attract talent, show recognition and boost retention.
One feature I’m particularly excited about is InstaPay, which is going to redefine how we think about payroll. Paying people in arrears made sense when employment was analogue but now that we’ve digitised employment it’s time to challenge this standard practice.
The reality is employees need to pay their living expenses in real time but they wait weeks to get paid after committing their time and effort at work. This causes many employees to live off credit cards, BNPL and other high cost credit solutions between paydays but why should they? They’ve already earned the money they need to survive; they just can’t access it.
InstaPay allows employees to access a portion of their earned wages in real-time, which can help them avoid these financial struggles and improve their overall financial well-being – all without any affect to their credit score.
Studies show that a significant number of employees don’t have access to emergency funds. In fact as many as 1 in 3 people report not having $500 on hand for an emergency. With InstaPay, employees have access to their earnings whenever they need them without the credit hit, giving them greater financial security and control.
A huge thank you for your support
Every single piece of feedback we’ve received has led us here, so I’d like to say a huge thank you to our incredible customers for your continued support. Launching the world’s first superapp is no easy feat, so I hope you are as excited about this next phase as I am.
With that being said, I strongly believe that when you invest in your employees, they’ll invest their energy and effort back into your business. I can’t wait for you to experience all of the benefits that Swag will bring to your business and team.
If you have any feedback about Swag, I’d love to hear from you. Download the app, use it, share it and really try to get the most out of it.
Thank you again for your continued support as we enter this new era of Employment Hero.
Wishing you and your business all the best,
Ben Thompson