Ram Palaniappan
CEO
EarnIn
Episode 27
The Future of Work: Real-Time Pay Unlocks Performance & Financial Freedom
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features interviews with world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleNovember 7, 2025 · 10:06
Thesis
“Pay should be continuous and accessible as employees work, as modernizing the payroll process and providing financial liquidity significantly reduces employee stress, improves performance, and benefits both employees and employers.”
Show notes
Join us as we dive into the journey of Ram Palaniappan, CEO of Earnin, who transformed a simple idea into a groundbreaking financial wellness platform. Discover how Earnin is revolutionizing payroll by providing employees with instant access to their earnings, reducing financial stress, and enhancing productivity.
Learn about the future of pay and how continuous access to wages is reshaping the workplace. Tune in for insights on financial wellness, employee empowerment, and the evolving landscape of HR technology.
Key Points We Cover
- Ram's career journey from logistics to financial services.
- The inception of Earnin from a simple idea to a platform.
- How Earnin provides instant access to earnings.
- The impact of financial stress on employee productivity.
- The future of payroll as continuous and streaming.
- Benefits of Earnin for both employees and employers.
- The role of financial wellness in employee satisfaction.
- Earnin's approach to modernizing payroll systems.
- The importance of authentic leadership in HR.
- Advice for founders in HR tech: stay close to customers.
EarnIn is an app that gives you access to the pay you've earned - when you want it. Get paid for the hours you've worked without waiting for payday.
What you'll take away
- 1Employee compensation is shifting towards continuous pay, where employees access earnings as they work, moving away from traditional bi-weekly paychecks.
- 2Addressing financial stress through earned wage access significantly improves employee work performance, reliability, reduces absenteeism, and lowers turnover.
- 3Modernizing payroll systems beyond an employer-centric model to a more employee-centric, continuous, and streaming system offers substantial benefits for both parties.
- 4CHROs should prioritize providing faster access to pay as a key strategy to stand out in the current labor market and improve overall employee well-being.
- 5HR leaders should focus on fostering financial security, growth, and belonging through authentic leadership and transparency, rather than overhyped 'perks'.
What most organizations get wrong
- •"There's no other digital product that ships every 2 weeks." (2:41) — Challenges the conventional wisdom of bi-weekly payroll in a digital age.
- •"What could be overhyped is perks over purpose." (9:11) — Pushes back against the common HR trend of offering numerous perks, suggesting a deeper focus on fundamental needs like financial security.
In Ram's words
“I thought we were paying everybody well. And when I spoke with one of them, the problem that she had was that she needed money the next day, couldn't wait till the following Friday for payday, and it was already halfway through the weekend.”
Highlights the fundamental problem EarnIn solves, born from a real-world employee struggle with traditional payroll cycles.
“There's no other digital product that ships every 2 weeks.”
A sharp critique of outdated payroll systems, emphasizing the need for modernization in line with other digital services.
“Why does it take 4 days to go from one system to another? It shouldn't, and it's because we're using very outdated money movement rails. We're using ACH, which hasn't changed in 70 years.”
Pinpoints the technical bottleneck in current payment systems that causes delays and negatively impacts employees.
“Financial stress impacts individuals in so many ways, and it shows in the— in sort of their work performance as well.”
Connects financial well-being directly to employee productivity and reliability, making it a critical HR concern.
“I would think of financial wellness as feeling secure about your financial situation and being able to make choices that allow you to enjoy life.”
Provides a concise, human-centric definition of financial wellness, moving beyond buzzwords to practical impact.
“What could be overhyped is perks over purpose. I think employees want financial security, they want growth, they want belonging.”
Offers a contrarian view on common HR strategies, advocating for foundational employee needs over superficial benefits.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Employees experiencing overdraft fees and needing short-term loans due to bi-weekly pay cycles and unexpected expenses.
- •Traditional payroll systems being inflexible and unable to provide earned wages on demand, leading to employee financial stress.
- •Slow money movement (e.g., ACH taking 4 days) causing delays for employees to access their pay after it's earned.
- •Financial stress among employees leading to reduced productivity, increased absenteeism, and higher turnover for employers.
- •Employers struggling to differentiate themselves in a competitive labor market and attract top talent.
- •HR leaders focusing on 'perks' that don't address fundamental employee needs like financial security, growth, and belonging.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features interviews with world's top HR leaders
Built by People
About 1% of US workers actually use Earnin to access their pay
In the Elevator With Earned
Your paycheck is digital today, but it still ships every 2 weeks
Payment Processing in a Digital World
Ram: You just rolled out payroll, which is quite unique
Employee Payroll: Why Live Pay?
How does integrating earned wage access with payroll change the experience for employees and employers
How Earned Wage Access with Payroll affects employees and employers
Financial stress impacts individuals in so many ways, and it shows in work performance
Financial Wellbeing and the Future of Pay
Ram: I think pay is going to become continuous. There might be small pockets where pay could be biweekly
Biannual Paychecks
Ram, if you were CHRO today, what would be your top priority
Ram Khan on the Future of Workforce
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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