Cards Eliminate the Distribution/Pick Up Burden

Spartanburg, S.C.-based Denny’s restaurant chain offers payroll cards as an alternative to paychecks to the 27,000 employees who work at Denny’s 553 corporate-owned restaurants nationally. With some prompting, Denny’s has been able to get 15% of all employees to accept the payroll card within two years.

Denny’s combined the promotion of the card with the promotion of direct deposit. The two electronic payments have been accepted by 50% of the employees, according to Debbie Atkins, public relations director for the chain. Typically, part-time employees without bank accounts choose the card while full-time salaried employees with bank accounts choose direct deposit.

In addition to lowering the company’s payroll cost, Denny’s wants as many employees on either form of electronic payment to reduce the burden of distributing checks. “We want our managers to spend as much time servicing customers and managing the stores rather than have to deal with passing out paychecks,” Atkins says. “And the employees like the fact that they don’t have to make a special trip just to pick up their checks.”

Lauri Giesen