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
EarnIn's origin story isn't a pitch deck moment — it's a conversation. Ram Palaniappan was working at a company, assumed he was paying employees well, and then spoke with one of them who'd had to borrow money over the weekend because payday was still a week away. She wasn't underpaid. She was just trapped by a 200-year-old payroll timing convention that has nothing to do with modern finance. That conversation became EarnIn.
The argument Ram makes is disarmingly simple: there's no other digital product on earth that ships every two weeks. We have real-time everything — food delivery, streaming, instant transfers — and yet paychecks still arrive on a schedule designed for a pre-digital economy. The result is that millions of workers face genuine financial stress not because they're earning too little, but because their access to what they've already earned is arbitrarily delayed. And that stress, as Ram documents, directly affects work performance, attendance, and retention.
His advice for CHROs is equally direct: if you want to stand out in the current labor market, prioritize faster access to pay. Not as a perk — as an acknowledgment of a fundamental employee need. And his caution to HR leaders who are building benefits packages around perks and experiences: "What could be overhyped is perks over purpose." Financial security isn't a perk. It's the foundation everything else sits on.
What you'll learn:
- How EarnIn started from a single employee conversation — and the payroll problem it revealed
- Why the bi-weekly pay cycle is an operating model built for a pre-digital world
- The direct link between financial stress, absenteeism, and employee turnover
- How continuous pay access changes employee behavior and employer outcomes
- Why "perks over purpose" is one of the most common traps in employee benefits design
- What it looks like for a CEO to lead with authenticity in the HR tech space
Built by People is presented by Previ — the free tool that helps HR teams boost internal communication engagement.
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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