Winger Brothers

Winger Bros. switches to Branch to streamline operations and offer all-in-one EWA and paycard solution

Background

Winger Bros. is a restaurant group that owns and operates casual dining restaurants across several states in the Intermountain region. Known for their fun, high-energy full-service restaurants, they employ roughly 230 employees across their Wingers Restaurant & Alehouse locations.

Seeking a full-service paycard, EWA, and digital tips in one solution

In supporting the expansion of the fast-growing chain, Winger Bros. Chief People Officer Suzy Bronzati was in search of a streamlined solution beyond the company’s current traditional paycard offering. Brozati and her team were interested in a comprehensive payments solution that could not only offer instant digital tips and direct deposit, but also earned wage access (EWA).

While Bronzati and her team had a paycard solution in place, they weren’t completely satisfied with the experience: not only were the admin processes cumbersome, but they didn’t offer EWA. This was becoming more of a dealbreaker, particularly since Bronzati realized EWA was a benefit her employees could really use.

“We had several employees who would come to us requesting advances,” says Bronzati, noting that managers would be tasked with tracking down which employees asked to borrow money and when they would pay them back.

This wasn’t ideal for Winger Bros. managers, and Bronzati and the team knew it was time for something different.

“We heard that wage access had become pretty commonplace in the restaurant industry, so we wanted to offer them that benefit,” she says.

The Winger Bros. team started speaking with other companies in hopes of finding a card solution that could provide instant tips, direct deposit, and EWA all in one. Luckily, the COO for Winger Bros. happened upon Branch at a restaurant show in Chicago—and after striking up a conversation, soon discovered the workforce payments platform could offer all the solutions they were looking for.

Helping hourly employees—and making life easier for managers

Bronzati and her team already knew that their employees wanted EWA, but once Branch was up and running, she realized just how important this benefit was going to be.

“I didn’t know what kind of utilization or engagement we would have, and it started out slowly,” says Bronzati. “But now we see quite a bit of usage; these are hourly workers who work paycheck to paycheck, and it really makes a difference,” says Bronzati.

Now employees don’t have to ask their managers for an advance; they have the power to request an advance of their own earnings through the Branch app itself.

“Employees don’t have to be embarrassed to go ask their manager for an advance,” says Bronzati. “They know they can just go into their Branch app and pull out 50 bucks or 70 bucks— and that’s usually what it is, these small amounts that they need to get by until payday.”

Making the switch to Branch has also alleviated some strain from Winger Bros. managers. “It alleviated that responsibility from our managers of having to track things themselves. Now they don’t have to remember: ‘oh I have to collect a hundred bucks back from someone the next time he gets paid again,” says Bronzati. “It’s much cleaner to have it all done through payroll and systemized with Branch. It’s made for much better tracking.”

Streamlined payments and seamless onboarding

Though earned wage access has been a major draw, Winger Bros. employees enjoy instant digital tips and direct deposit, too. Bronzati mentions how seamless it is to get someone onboarded and paid with Branch—even if they’ve never had a bank account before.

“If we have a new hire who is a young person or just doesn’t have a bank account set up yet, they get a Branch Card and can start getting paid right away. And it’s awesome that there aren’t fees associated with that, they just get this free account. So that’s a huge win for our people because every few dollars makes a difference, and it adds up.”

Bronzati also notes that she loves how easy it is to get employees started with Branch. “I love how you have the QR code which makes it really easy to give to employees to get started. They scan the code and it takes them directly into the app, which has made things very easy,” says Bronzati. She also has found that Branch streamlines the payment process from her side of things, too. “Our old system I’d have to read out and type out each person’s account number. Now I can click on a person’s name and their accounting and routing info come up right away.”

Overall, making the switch to Branch has made life easier for the admin team and Winger Bros.’ hourly employees, who are equipped with a more comprehensive solution than they were before. “It’s been an amazing benefit for our employees,” says Bronzati.