Deep Dive: How Belfry Brings On-Demand Pay to the Private Security Industry

In private security, turnover is among the highest of any industry, and on-demand pay is quickly shifting from a perk to an expectation. Belfry, an all-in-one platform for private security firms, launched on-demand pay with Check through a native integration with Clair.

In this conversation, Check’s Chief Growth Officer, Ian Zapolsky speaks with Minsoo Kim, Head of Product at Belfry, on why Belfry added on-demand pay, what mattered most in choosing a provider, and the early traction they're seeing.

Ian: Could you briefly introduce yourself and what you own at Belfry? And then give a quick setup for Belfry: who you serve and what the platform does.

Minsoo: My name is Minsoo Kim and I'm currently the Head of Product at Belfry. I came from engineering and joined early. Today I own the product strategy and the roadmap for the company. These days, I spend a lot of time sitting next to larger customers in demos and implementations, so I get to see how security companies run their day-to-day, which shapes exactly what we build.

Belfry is an all-in-one platform for the private security industry. We handle everything from guard operations, scheduling, timekeeping, payroll, billing, HR compliance, and accounting. Before Belfry, our customers would typically be using a patchwork of different software: one for scheduling, one to fill out officer reports, one for accounting. Now with Belfry, there is one source of truth.

Ian: Who are the security workers working for these firms? Could you help me understand what their backgrounds tend to be and how people end up working in security?

Minsoo: It's actually quite diverse. There are two and a half cohorts at play. There are your younger security officers who are looking for a career, or they might be working part-time or full-time before they apply to the police academy, or they might be ex-military. Then you have your older security officer cohort who have retired from the military or police, and now they're working in this private security role. And then there's that half cohort that works up the ladder from security officer all the way to operations and above.

Ian: One thing I've come to understand about the security industry is that turnover is high, among the highest of any industry. Why is that? And are those cohorts all built equally in terms of their propensity to turn over?

Minsoo: It’s a very competitive market. Security firms work hard to set themselves apart through the quality of their service, but they’re often bidding against each other on contracts where clients have tight budgets. That puts real pressure on margins, which makes it harder to raise wages. On top of that, many officers see the role as a stepping stone to their next career, which adds to turnover.

Ian: Let's talk about why Belfry decided to offer on-demand pay (ODP). Why ODP, and why was this the right time?

Minsoo: It has everything to do with customer demand. Prospects and customers were constantly asking about the availability of ODP when they were coming from previous software providers.

In sales calls, we would get questions from prospects like, “We're currently using this ODP provider. What's going to happen during the switch?” There was that friction we had to navigate for a bit. From our perspective, ODP is quickly transitioning from a perk to an expectation.

Ian: What's the primary reason for ODP in the mind of the employer?

Minsoo: The primary driver is the employee retention story. There's a belief in the industry that if you provide this tool, there's a higher likelihood that employees will stay longer and be tenured.

Ian: In addition to on-demand pay, you've built a platform where security workers are actually in your app every day, clocking in and out and managing shifts. How does having real-time data about workers help the ODP story, or enable you to do more for those workers to drive retention in other ways?

Minsoo: On-demand pay is only as good as the earned wage data that backs it. Within Belfry, we have a real-time timekeeping module where we can track when officers are clocking in and out of shifts. So there's an opportunity to send that data to ODP so that both employers and employees can be confident that the earned wages being advanced are the proper amount.

Ian: When you were making this decision, you were looking at a number of providers. What were the elements of the solution that were most important to Belfry in the evaluation?

Minsoo: I could sum it up as the customer experience, and I'd separate that into three categories: the technology, the employer, and the employee or officer.

From the technology perspective, coming from an engineering background, the patchwork of integrations shows up in the customer experience, and Clair is native to Check. Not having to do an integration with an ODP provider and then with payroll, and have them somehow talk to each other, reduces the number of integrations we have to do, which would invariably show up in the customer experience.

From the employer side, we really liked that employers were not involved in collecting the repayment, and that there was no added admin of managing earned wage advances by adding deductions and reconciling them. The administrative burden is relatively lower compared with other solutions we explored.

And finally, for the officer side, we really liked the transparency in fees, and the option to have no fees if they're able to wait a few days for access to their earned wages.

Clair checked all three boxes.

Ian: That's a really helpful breakdown. How did it feel actually building this out once you started the integration with Clair and Check?

Minsoo: It was definitely a lot easier than it would have been if we had pursued a separate integration with another vendor. The fact that the payroll provider was working so closely with the ODP provider meant that a lot of problems we would have had to solve on our own, we could partner with Check to solve on our behalf.

Ian: Are there any early results you can share, adoption feedback you're hearing from security officers, or a customer story that comes to mind now that it's live for Belfry customers?

Minsoo: We're definitely seeing strong traction, especially from our largest customers. Among our biggest firms, 3 in 10 officers are actively using it, which is great. We’ve also seen a good mix of folks choosing no fee by waiting a few days, alongside those who opt for instant access with a small fee. It gives officers the flexibility to access their pay on their own terms.

Ian: On-demand pay is a super valuable feature that you came to Check with, with a really clear vision for it, less than a year ago. How do you see on-demand pay fitting into Belfry's bigger picture, both as value for your customers and for the business?

Minsoo: Retention challenges often show up in the first few months, so we're really focused on making the first weeks great for both employers and employees. Strong onboarding from both the employee and employer side builds trust and momentum early, whether it's payroll or clocking in on the mobile app. When we continue to focus on strong onboarding, that gives our customers, both employers and employees, the space to focus on what they do best, which is providing great security services to their clients.

Ian: Reduce friction, make it easier to bring folks on, recognize that high turnover is a fact of the industry, and make that as seamless and painless as possible for employers. Makes a lot of sense. Last question: what are you most excited for Check to build, or to build with Check next, for the payroll-focused part of your product?

Minsoo: It dovetails really well with our overall company focus on making onboarding great. Payroll is complex to set up and maintain, so strong onboarding for payroll means building that momentum and trust so we can get customers to focus on revenue-generating activities.

Ian: I'm excited to collaborate on that together.