The case for financial wellness from an employee and employer perspective
Many employers incorporate a health wellness program into their organization, but financial wellness is just as important. Studies show that 47% of all employees are stressed about finances and 54% of those employees say they will likely use their retirement funds for expenses other than retirement.1 Employees who are stressed about money or debt often bring that stress into the workplace, causing lower productivity, higher absentee rates and neglect or postponing of personal healthcare. In addition, employees that cannot retire may have a negative impact on employer profitability (higher healthcare/workman’s compensation costs) and impede the development of the next generation of leaders.
5 Steps for Creating a Financial Wellness Program
Discovery
- Understand your organizational goals and objectives.
- Review current demographic and participation information of existing benefit programs.
- Survey employees to determine their financial literacy level and pain points.
Analyze
- Review findings in step 1 and determine the next course of action/ goals to be accomplished.
- Identify existing resources through current retirement and health plan providers, as well as look for the best financial wellness tools and initiatives that meet your needs.
Design Your Program
- Look into vendor solutions, such as debt consolidation, college planning, student loan debt, identity theft, estate planning etc.
- Design online and onsite education programs.
- Determine delivery method(s), in-person, apps, online, phone (could be more than one).
- On-line portal tools.
- Create a financial wellness committee.
Inspire
- Develop a Communication Strategy to engage employees and bring awareness of the program and the resources available.
- Develop an annual financial education/wellness calendar with action steps for the coming year.
- Develop an Education Policy Statement to include objectives, communication materials, topics and monitoring criteria.
- Develop financial well-being point based challenges to incentivize your employees to participate.
Monitor and Measure
- The goal of a financial wellness program is to make an impact.
- Monitor and measure the program.
- Continue to make adjustments and improvements.
- Start the action items in listed in part 2 above annually.
Through Innovative’s customized financial wellness program, we work with employers to design, educate and engage employees so they can reach their financial goals. We work with you to analyze your demographics and custom tailor programs that meet the needs of your employees. Financial well-being is a win-win for employees and employers. When employees are financially confident, studies show that they are more engaged and productive in the workplace. This confidence typically translates into an increase in retirement plan deferrals. For employers, they often experience lower healthcare costs and employee absenteeism which can result in an increase in employer profitability. Let Innovative help you create a program that can help everyone. Call us at 856-242-3300.
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