Lime FMS operates in a physically demanding frontline environment, where many employees are paid at or around the living wage. As with many organisations in similar sectors, employee turnover is high, particularly in the first few months of employment, when financial pressure can be greatest.

By implementing the Zellis Financial Wellbeing solution, Lime has been able to support employees’ financial wellbeing while maintaining existing payroll processes and avoiding additional administrative burden for HR and payroll teams.

The challenge

Lime employs a distributed frontline workforce across multiple sites, with many employees working variable hours.

Recruitment and retention are ongoing challenges, with annual turnover close to 100%.

For new starters in particular, managing cash flow between paydays can be difficult. While Lime wanted to support employees’ financial wellbeing, introducing weekly payroll or manual pay advances would have created significant operational workload for the team.

Regular requests for ad-hoc pay advances or short-term loans also placed additional pressure on the team.

To address this, the business needed a solution that would:

  • Support employees with short-term cash flow
  • Reduce requests for pay advances or ad-hoc loans
  • Work seamlessly with existing payroll processes
  • Avoid increasing operational complexity or risk

“Access to money is so important to our people. They need to be able to balance their books, and anything we can do to give them more support is very, very important.” – Stephen Seymour, HR Director, Lime FMS

Why choose Zellis?

Before choosing Zellis FWB, Lime had previously implemented an earned wage access solution that relied on payroll interception. While this approach offered employees flexibility, it also created operational friction over time, particularly for payroll and HR teams, including:

  • Manual data handling required under the previous payroll-interception approach led to clerical errors and delays
  • Limited employee self-service caused frustration
  • Contract and pricing changes increased administrative overhead

Zellis FWB addressed these issues directly and stood out for its operational fit, payroll integrated model and consultative approach.

Key decision factors included:

  • A payroll-integrated model that removed the need for payroll interception and reduced manual handling
  • A custom API integration built in collaboration with Lime’s IT team, connecting Zellis FWB’s open API directly to Lime’s in-house payroll system
  • A high-touch implementation and transition process, underpinned by close collaboration during onboarding and consistent, proactive support thereafter
  • A clear focus on employee financial wellbeing and education, not just access to earned pay

The transition to Zellis FWB was managed collaboratively, with close involvement from both teams and clear communications to managers and employees to ensure a smooth rollout.

“Lime had already seen the challenges that fragmented payroll processes can create. Our focus was on removing that risk, keeping payroll operations simple, and giving employees the visibility and control they were missing”. – Madeline Hannan-Jones, Strategic Customer Success Manager, Zellis

The results

Improved employee confidence and engagement

Results from a recent employee survey conducted in late 2025 show strong engagement and positive wellbeing outcomes:

  • 94.4% of employees say they feel more in control of their money
  • 76.4% rate their satisfaction with Zellis FWB at 5 out of 5
  • 84.5% say they are more likely to stay with Lime
  • 87.2% would recommend Lime as an employer because of Zellis FWB

“Even if they’re not actively using the payroll advance feature, the viewing of the app is massively high, they’re all looking to see where they are”. – Stephen Seymour, HR Director, Lime FMS

Reduced pressure on payroll and HR teams

From an operational perspective, Zellis FWB has delivered tangible operational benefits:

  • Fewer requests for manual pay advances
  • Reduced payroll queries
  • Smoother reconciliation at month end
  • Less pressure during high-demand periods

Based on the feedback from the HR and payroll teams at Lime, these changes are estimated to save around 100 hours of administrative and payroll effort each year, largely by reducing manual interventions and peak-period workload.

Zellis FWB is now a core part of Lime’s employee support strategy, helping the business balance financial wellbeing with operational efficiency.

Looking ahead, Lime sees further opportunities to build on this foundation by expanding the financial wellbeing offering, including savings, budgeting tools and financial education, moving beyond earned wage access to long-term financial resilience.

“Before Zellis FWB, we were regularly being asked for pay advances every month. Zellis FWB has stopped that and made things much easier for everyone. It allows our teams to access their wages early, giving them control over their finances and supporting their financial wellbeing, which is critical in a high-turnover, lower-wage industry.” – Stephen Seymour, HR Director, Lime FMS