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As the country moves into day 106 of the lockdown, there are concerns that South African employees are\u00a0struggling with cashflow during the lockdown implemented to stop the spread of COVID-19 in South\u00a0Africa.<\/p>\n
Transunion pointed out in its first quarter South Africa Industry Insights Report (IIR) last month that\u00a0demand for consumer credit remained high in the first three months of the year, likely because lockdown\u00a0was only implemented towards the end of the first quarter.<\/p>\n
The figures shows that outstanding balances continued to grow across all major consumer lending\u00a0categories and was strongest for non-bank personal loans at 17.2% year-on-year.<\/p>\n
Paymenow\u2019s Head of Business Development, Bryan Habana, points out that Transunion\u2019s research will\u00a0only have included consumers with access to credit \u2013 it, by default, will have ignored those people who\u00a0live-hand-to-mouth.<\/p>\n
Co-founder and Paymenow Managing Director, Deon Nobrega says loan sharks use the dire financial\u00a0situations to their advantage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the sort of space we traditionally see loan sharks paying in, offering consumers quick loans at\u00a0exorbitant interest rates.\u201d<\/p>\n
Employers can help their staff avoid crippling loans through allowing them responsible early access to\u00a0already earned wages; amounts of between R200 and R500 that will make all the difference when staff\u00a0come up short before payday arrives.<\/p>\n
There are several advantages to early access to wages:<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. Employees can avoid being stuck in a debt trap, which is a seemingly never-ending vicious cycle\u00a0of escalating interest payments. Illegal money lenders are also known as \u201cmashonisa\u201d and they\u00a0charge consumers extremely high interest rates. In some instances, loan sharks resort to violence\u00a0and intimidation when collecting outstanding debts.<\/p>\n 2. Work productivity is improved: Offering your employees financial assistance when they require it\u00a0boosts their happiness and focus at work.<\/p>\n 3. 50% of financially stressed employees spend three hours or more at work each week thinking\u00a0about or dealing with personal financial issues. If a staff member is worrying about their child\u2019s\u00a0upcoming school fees payment, chances are that that\u2019s all they\u2019re doing \u2013 worrying.<\/p>\n 4. It\u2019s estimated that more than 70% of doctor visits are due to stress-related health problems. And\u00a055% of stress is money related<\/p>\n Research has shown that staff away from the office because they are ill should run to about 1.5%,\u00a0or 3.75 days per 250 working days per year. However, most South African companies have an\u00a0overall absenteeism rate of between 3.5% and 6%, which means that industry loses R16 to R19\u00a0billion in productivity each year.<\/p>\n 5. Offering a benefit to improve employee financial health and security helps retain and attract high\u00a0performing talent<\/p>\n A salary advance is a low-risk option that current, and potential future, staff will really appreciate. 6. Shows that you care about employee welfare<\/p>\n When you offer staff financial assistance through responsible early access to already earned\u00a0wages, you also contribute to their financial wellness. In turn, this does amazing things for a\u00a0company\u2019s image, brand, and social standing: it shows that you care about your employees\u00a0enough to offer them that benefit.<\/p>\n 7. Employees who are financially stressed are more prone to theft in the workplace<\/p>\n Stress related to a staff members\u2019 individual or family financial situation may tempt a desperate\u00a0employee to steal from an employer. This can result in a direct cost to employers.<\/p>\n Habana says offering employees an advance on wages already earned will, therefore, not only protect\u00a0your company, but also bolster productivity, and is a win-win all around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As the country moves into day 106 of the lockdown, there are concerns that South African employees are\u00a0struggling with cashflow during the lockdown implemented to stop the spread of COVID-19 in South\u00a0Africa. Transunion pointed out in its first quarter South Africa Industry Insights Report (IIR) last month that\u00a0demand for consumer credit remained high in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[132,5453],"tags":[5624],"class_list":["post-34413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion-and-analysis","category-social","tag-social"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/slaughterandmay.jpg?fit=792%2C456&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0QIf-8X3","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-16 03:25:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nNow that most companies are rolling back perks and benefits in a bid to reduce costs, offering\u00a0your employees the benefit of financial assistance in their time of need will really give your\u00a0company an edge over its competitors in terms of recruiting and retaining new and existing\u00a0employees<\/p>\n