Corporate Financial Wellness Best Practices
Corporate financial wellness and financial literacy programs are becoming increasingly popular with employers across the country as they fight for top talent in a tight labor market and as American’s increasingly fall behind in preparing for retirement.
When we look at the average American worker they are struggling financially in many facets and none of which are limited to simply saving for retirement. The issue spreads far beyond simply preparing for retirement and instead typically permeates every aspect of an individual’s life given how interconnected money and day-to-day life are.
Given the well-established financial challenges many across America’s workforce face it is not surprising that financial stress is finding its way into the workplace, where the three biggest stressors converge: money, job and the economy. The negative implications of employing a workforce that is constantly stressed, while clear in some areas and less clear in others, undoubtedly exists.
Companies implement financial wellness programs for a variety of different reasons. Some feel compelled because they feel it is the right thing to do, others believe wellness programs are a genuine way to demonstrate to employees that they are valued, others yet do so for more selfish reasons like increasing employee productivity by alleviating financial stress.
Whatever the reason behind a company’s financial wellness program, there are certain critical components necessary to ensuring any financial wellness initiative is a success from both the employee and employer standpoint. What follows is a comprehensive list of critical components necessary to succeed.
- Personalized – customized to address financial concerns based on the unique situations of employee segments.
- Autonomous– informational resources should be accessible and independent for employees to engage and consume on their time.
- Continuous – achieving financial wellness for any employee is not a static goal, but rather an ongoing process, so initiatives should focus on ongoing improvement.
- Dynamic – tools and resources should be relevant and timely, as well as interactive and work to open up two-way communication for getting advice.
- Human – technology based resources are critical, but human interaction, engagement and empathy with qualified individuals capable of giving advice both one-on-one and within group settings should not be undervalued.
- Measurable– largely due to the intangible nature of wellness, it can be difficult to track progress and success. However, a good wellness initiative should have critical performance indicators used to track success both for employees and employers.
- Private– there is likely no single more important factor to the success of a wellness initiative than the privacy of those participating, as well as the trust that employers do not have access to individual’s private information.
- Gamified– humans naturally resist change and default to habits, which is why initiatives focused on changing fundamental behaviors are so critical; some of the best wellness programs turn participating into a game, which helps to increase engagement.
If you’d like to bring financial wellness to your organization feel free to reach out to us or share our financial wellness white paper with your HR department.
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