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Financial wellness programs that reduce stress and improve employee engagement
Key takeaways:
Satisfied employees are happier and more productive. They benefit your business in numerous ways and as an employer, you need to implement programs and policies that help keep them financially sound. Supporting your employees’ happiness can be done in many ways. Ensuring they have the right financial resources is a great step in the right direction.
In a survey of 1,000 employees, 69% said that improving their financial health was one of their key goals this year. Employers who help their employees with this goal do not just benefit their employees – they also benefit their companies. Financial wellness initiatives improve worker satisfaction, boost employee retention, and reduce stress.
Wondering what types of programs you should consider for your employees? This guide is designed to help you come up with ideas. Here are nine financial wellness solutions to provide financial literacy and security for your employees. They include counseling resources, retirement plans, debt management, an emergency savings account, and more.
1. DIY financial wellness workshops
Financial wellness workshops are a simple and easy way to increase your employees' knowledge about personal finance. Workshops can be a one-time thing or part of a recurring program. Potential topics include making budgets, debt reduction strategies, and savings tactics. You can have management host the workshops or invite professional speakers and financial experts to do it.
2. Financial wellness educational tools
In addition to financial wellness workshops, you may want to look at e-learning applications One such application is LearnLux. This digital app helps your employees learn about 401ks, health savings accounts, and other essential financial products. Your employees get the education they need to make well-informed decisions and your HR team saves time on answering questions and providing education about these types of benefits programs. LearnLux also provides on-demand financial advising for your employees.
Another app is Your Money Line, which believes that behavior is the secret to financial change, not income level, and that it guides your employees to the motivation and discipline they need to embrace healthier money habits. This financial wellness tool helps users understand their challenges, develop plans, and find the motivation they need to keep moving forward. Employees can access video courses, calculators, tools, and more. Most importantly, they get financial coaching without pitches to buy products and they can easily access advice over the phone through email, live chat, or in the app.
Directly focused on stress reduction, Best Money Moves quizzes your employees about their stress levels in key categories. Then, it customizes a financial education and wellness plan to reduce your employees’ stress. Reduced stress helps boost retention, lower healthcare costs, and reduce employee accidents.
3. Debt counseling
Debt is unavoidable and if not utilized smartly, can be incredibly stressful and financially debilitating. Debt counseling is a topic that can be explored in a financial literacy program or it can be something that you offer to your employees on request.
Counseling options include helping your employees find programs to mitigate their debt, like loan payment assistance or consolidation loans. It may also include helping employees create budgets to get out of debt or providing them with education on how to use debt efficiently.
4. Tuition and student loan reimbursement
Widely available but often underused, tuition reimbursement programs give employees a chance to further their education without having to pay as much out of pocket. Employers may provide a predetermined amount of money toward each employee's education costs. Alternatively, employers may offer to cover all or part of the credits needed toward a degree that improves the employee's knowledge about the industry and prepares them for new roles in the organization.
Student loan debt is also a huge financial drain on tons of employees, especially younger ones. Offering to help employees pay it off will lift a huge burden for many who will most likely be eager to pay back the kindness with increased productivity and attention to detail.
5. Hardship loan programs
A financial crisis can prevent people from being able to get to work. For instance, if an employee's only vehicle breaks down and they don't have the money to cover the repair, they may not be able to come into the office that day.
These programs can take a range of forms. They may include allowing employees to take loans or hardship withdrawals from their retirement accounts, letting employees share leave or donate paid-time-off to their co-workers, or even providing relief funds to employees dealing with severe hardships.
Providing these programs can help your employees deal with these situations without compromising their ability to work or diminishing productivity at your company.
6. Emergency savings accounts
Hardship loans can help an employee in a tough spot but they come with several drawbacks. An emergency savings account, however, can help someone in a bind without chaining them down to what they’ll owe back.
Designed to help your employees build and maintain an emergency savings account, SecureSave is a low-cost, high-impact workplace savings program that is easy to set up and administer. This solution is the first purpose-built emergency savings program that lets your employees contribute to a fund directly from their paychecks. It allows you to match funds or provide rewards when your employees reach certain milestones.
This emergency savings solution encourages your employees to set savings goals and it provides them with peace of mind that if they face an emergency, they will have funds available to help. By saving through their employer, employees are typically more committed to their goals and less likely to tap into their emergency funds when it's not necessary.
7. Health savings and flexible spending accounts
Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) are programs created by the federal government that help your employees save for medical expenses. Employees contribute pre-tax dollars to these accounts and they can spend the funds on a variety of health expenses.
You have to ensure you meet the requirements to use these types of accounts. For instance, HSAs are only available to people with high-deductible health insurance plans.
Employees who are stressed about their financial situations cannot focus on work. They are distracted and more likely to call in sick or neglect their duties. Helping your employees safeguard their financial situation goes beyond providing them with a good salary – it means investing in their financial wellness and these types of programs can help.
8. Earned Wage Access (EWA)
EWA goes by many names, such as on-demand pay, instant pay, and daily pay benefit. It helps employees access their wages before payday. This helps them manage debts using their own resources instead of taking a predatory loan or racking up credit card debt.
EWA can also be beneficial for businesses since it addresses employee financial stress which can cause lack of productivity and absenteeism. Since money is one of the top sources of stress among Americans, anything that helps ease financial woes is always a helpful benefit.
Contact Secure to improve your financial wellness offerings
Secure is an easy, low-cost, highly effective way to help your employees improve their financial wellness. Whether you offer this Emergency Savings Account (ESA) on its own or in conjunction with education programs and traditional savings plans such as retirement accounts, HSAs, and FSA, your employees are empowered to save.
Financial health and wellness in connection with an ESA puts your employees in control. They get the ability to face financial emergencies more easily and they become more productive, less stressed workers. To learn more, visit www.securesave.com.