Mekari Flex Presents Earned Wage Access Feature, Facilitates Early Salary Disbursement

In accordance with its commitment to holistically support employee welfare, the developer of SaaS services for Mekari’s business presents the Earned Wage Access (EWA) feature that allows employees to withdraw their salaries early through the Mekari Flex product.

Launched in 2020, Mekari Flex is a digital platform that is integrated with the Human Resources Information System (HRIS), enabling various types of companies to manage employee benefits more flexibly without incurring large costs.

Through the EWA feature, employees from companies that use technology from Mekari can make payroll disbursements before the payroll period. Employees can also manage their finances more flexibly, without incurring interest and complicated procedures.

Later on, the salary that is accessed earlier will be deducted from the current month’s salary, so the company does not need to allocate a special budget.

The EWA disbursement process is also easy, namely through the Mekari Flex application which is available for iOS and Android. Employees can apply for salary disbursement at any time independently without burdening the HR team.

The process of sending funds only takes a matter of minutes. In addition, employees can also use their EWA portion to pay for credit, data packages, electricity bills, etc., directly from the Mekari Flex application.

“Offering a variety of benefits without any additional costs, Mekari Flex’s Earned Wage Access is a digital solution for companies looking to improve employee welfare, productivity, and loyalty,” said Mekari Financial Services Director Jansen Jumino.

Through this new feature, Mekari hopes not only to help client companies to increase motivation and keep employees away from stress, but also to support their emergency needs without burdening the company’s cash flow.

By disbursing salaries before the payroll period, employees can manage their finances more flexibly, without incurring interest and complicated procedures.

Mekari’s Business Growth

In the last 12 months, Mekari claims to have recorded a 12x increase in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV). The number of users who transact actively reach tens of thousands, with a total transaction of hundreds of thousands.

Through a fully automated system, Mekari claims to be able to increase the efficiency and productivity of various aspects of the company, such as human resources, accounting, taxes, employee benefits, internal communications, and customer relations.

Going forward, Mekari is committed to continuously supporting employee welfare holistically – from physical, mental to financial health – with a flexible benefit platform and comprehensive features that are tailored to the needs of employees.

During the pandemic Mekari also recorded positive growth. Mekari noted that users with more than 500 employees grew significantly.

They use cloud HR products which are very helpful when adapting to the Covid-19 situation and compliance with new rules such as PPh 21 borne by the government (DTP).

In the last 3 years, Mekari has fully acquired three SaaS startups, namely Talenta, Jurnal, and KlikPajak in April 2019. Then each service is consolidated into one platform, enabling Mekari to attract target users of various business scales.

EWA Concept In Indonesia

Some interpret EWA stands for early wage access. There are also those who use other terms such as, on-demand pay, instant pay, daily pay benefit, or earned income access.

But all the names refer to solutions that do the same basic thing: help employees access the wages they’ve earned before payday arrives.

A global survey conducted by PwC in 2019 found that 67% of workers reported struggling with financial stress, meaning more than two-thirds of the working population are prone to migraines, depression and anxiety.

There are many studies that highlight the effects of employee financial stress on the business performance. While many employers provide employee loans (such as cash on hand), they are actually only locking in valuable cash flow and are not yet able to provide employees with flexibility and instant solutions.