Riot Hospitality Group Serves Up Cashless Payouts

Meet Taylor.

As Riot Hospitality’s Chief People Officer, Taylor’s job is — well, all about people.

Taylor is a human resources professional and employment attorney with a lot of experience under his belt. He takes an informed and intentional approach to people ops at Riot Hospitality, one of the fastest-growing hospitality companies in the U.S.

Taylor knows that tipping out employees has always been a headache across the entire restaurant industry, and for Riot Hospitality’s locations, it was no different.

“Cash every night. That’s how most places do it, and that’s how we always did it,” Taylor said.

Like many operators, Taylor’s team settled for the status quo, despite the headaches that cash presented. Until, of course, he found out about Kickfin.

Letting employees make the call

Taylor immediately saw the benefits Kickfin would deliver.

“There were a lot of issues with cash, and Kickfin was much more attractive. Our staff wouldn’t be leaving the venue with tons of money in their pockets — a huge liability — and we knew it would make payroll easier because we wouldn’t have to manually track the tips each person receives every day.”

But like any great Chief People Officer, Taylor wanted to know how the employees felt about it.

“Before we decided to go with Kickfin, we asked our team for their thoughts. They were immediately excited about Kickfin because it was clear it would save them a ton of time,” Taylor said.

Taylor said some employees were hesitant at first. But it didn’t take them long to get on board. They appreciated the perks of having money in their bank accounts instantly, versus in their pockets, where it was a liability — and far too easy to spend.

The biggest Kickfin advantages, according to Taylor:

• Cashless payouts: “Hardly anyone takes cash anywhere these days. Kickfin saves managers and employees a trip to the bank.”
  Better tracking: “It’s so much easier for employees to see what they’ve gotten paid out, and it’s better for our reporting and payroll.”
• Time savings: “The cost of Kickfin is offset by the time-savings of our staff — easily.”
• Support: “Any time we’ve had a question, it gets addressed in a matter of hours.”