DESKLESS PULSE SCORE
Can South Africa’s frontline make it to payday?
Introducing the Deskless Pulse Score: A concise way to track the financial resilience of frontline teams.
Across thousands of responses from South Africa’s deskless workers, one theme is clear: financial strain isn’t just personal – it’s operational. It affects reliability, focus, retention and morale.
The Deskless Pulse Score is a single number (0-100) that reflects how resilient a sector or person is to short‑term financial shocks. It is not a credit score and it does not label individuals. It is a workforce-level signal we track over time.
What the Deskless Pulse Score is
A composite index of frontline financial resilience, built from four equally weighted pillars (25% each):
Liquidity & savings – emergency buffers available if something goes wrong
Access to financial safety – availability and use of safe tools such as Earned Wage Access
Debt burden & cost – reliance on high‑cost credit between paydays
Self‑reported resilience – levels of financial stress and its impact on health and focus at work
Why it matters: when buffers and safe tools are absent, small shocks become crises; stress climbs and performance drops.
How to read the score
Higher is better. Use the bands below to benchmark teams and track changes after interventions.
Results: 2024 → 2025
Overall, resilience improved modestly year‑on‑year, despite weaker savings.
2024
2025
Change
Points
What moved the needle
Savings worsened – more workers report zero savings (50.9% in 2025 vs 44.3% in 2024)
Cheaper choices – reliance on loan sharks/payday loans eased, with more workers using safer options like EWA
Access held up – use of EWA remained high enough to stabilise cash‑flow gaps
Stress stayed high – around 72% report financial stress, underlining the need for employer support
Why it matters for employers
The DPS gives a simple, trackable way to:
Benchmark resilience by site, role or tenure
Identify sectors under pressure
See whether tools like EWA are replacing costly credit
Link financial wellbeing to absence, error rates and turnover
Note: The index draws on behaviours and access, not perceived literacy. It is designed to guide action – not to judge individuals.