Ecount Announces Success of Paperless Payroll Program at Men's Wearhouse
Leading Retailer, Fortune Best Places to Work, Leverages Ecount Payroll Choices Program™ to Provide Employee Benefit and Guaranteed Pay.
Conshohocken, PA, May 6, 2008 - Ecount, a Citi company, today announced the successful rollout of Men's Wearhouse paperless payroll program. Men's Wearhouse, one of North America's largest specialty retailers of men's apparel, has implemented Ecount's Payroll Choices Program, offering all of their employees the benefit of immediately available, easily accessible pay. The Payroll Choices Program provides employees with an electronic, prepaid account accessible via Visa® debit card or convenience check.
Men's Wearhouse has a distinct history of an employee-centered culture, named multiple times to Fortune Magazine's 100 Best Companies to Work For in recent years. Their latest employee initiative has been to provide a benefit that would save employees money and provide an added convenience.
"Our company is extremely employee focused, and we are constantly on the lookout for new benefits and innovations to improve our employee's experience with us," stated Gulya Belchuk, Treasury Manager, Men's Wearhouse. "The opportunity to provide all of our employees with guaranteed, on-time and immediate access to their pay was one we couldn't pass up. We wanted to help our employees without bank accounts; those using check cashing services and paying up to 5% of their pay to cash their checks gain easy, free access to their pay. The Ecount Payroll Choices Program enables us to do that."
The Payroll Choices Program from Ecount delivers the tools to convert an employee base to 100 percent paperless and electronic payroll. A cornerstone of the program is the Ecount Payroll Card, a prepaid Visa card that enables organizations to easily deliver electronic pay to their entire employee base, eliminating the hassles employees face with traditional paper checks.
"With Ecount, we are able to get our employees their pay, guaranteed pay day morning, regardless of whether they are in-store on payday," continued Belchuk. "Because of the nature of our business, many of our employees are not on location on payday - this can cause a huge strain for our employee base as well as distribution headaches in-store. This gives our employees peace of mind."
In addition, Ecount's Payroll Choices Program enables Men's Wearhouse to eliminate most paper checks and the high cost and hassles associated with them. Ecount also provides electronic paystubs, compliance tools and easy technology integration (read: no technology investment), together with a strategy and team of consultative experts to help businesses achieve their corporate objectives.
Most organizations are looking for ways to trim unnecessary costs from their budget - and migrating payroll from a paper-based, inefficient, manual process to a streamlined, paperless payroll is a great way to reduce avoidable expenditures. For organizations with a less-than-optimal direct deposit adoption rate, the Ecount Payroll Choices Program has quickly become the answer to their payroll problems by enabling companies to provide desirable options to employees, while still effectively achieving a paperless and electronic payroll.
"We have significantly reduced our costs with the Ecount Payroll Choices Program - we went from delivering 15,000 documents, mostly via express delivery, on a weekly basis," stated Renea Levine, Payroll Manager, Men's Wearhouse. "Now with Ecount, we have eliminated 80% of that volume and cost," continued Levine.
"Men's Wearhouse, like all leading employers, is looking to provide added benefits to their employees," stated Matt Gillin, CEO of Ecount. "The Payroll Choices Program enables companies to deliver a compelling employee benefit, providing guaranteed on-time pay, eliminating check cashing fees and providing immediate access to funds. What is unique about this solution is that not only is it a tremendous employee benefit, but it drastically reduces the cost of payroll distribution. Payroll Choices is a true win-win for both employees and employer."
About Citi Prepaid Services
Citi Prepaid Services (formerly Ecount) is a leading provider of innovative prepaid solutions. Through a consultative approach, Citi Prepaid provides clients with comprehensive electronic payment programs that reduce costs, enhance operational efficiencies and provide an unmatched user experience. Leveraging an extensive payment platform and proprietary prepaid technology, clients around the world depend on Citi Prepaid's custom programs for all types of payments including compensation, promotions and disbursements.