Helping Employees Attain and Maintain Financial Wellness

Financial burdens are a huge source of stress. And stress, well that’s a huge source of all kinds of physical, mental and emotional unwellness. It’s a well-known fact that stressed employees are unhealthier, less alert, less motivated and are more depressed. That’s certainly not a description you want defining your workforce! It behooves employers to pay heed to any forces acting against the well-being of their employees - especially financial ones that can be ameliorated.

The term "financial wellness" refers to a state in which an employee has a sense of security and well-being around their finances. They have a positive relationship with money and feel they are able to provide for themselves and their family’s financial needs. Promoting financial wellness among your employees is good business practice. Those who aren’t stressed over money are more productive and loyal to the company. And those employee qualities are good for your bottom line as they reduce turnaround costs. In addition, the resources provided by a company dedicated to promoting financial wellness are extremely attractive features to job candidates.

Implementing Financial Wellness Policies in Your Workplace

The most direct way to promote financial wellness is to offer employees compensation benefits including:

• Retirement plans can make saving for future financial security convenient for employees. Employer matching is even more incentivizing for employees.
• Health savings accounts can help employees’ pay go farther by creating a pre-tax account from which health products can be purchased.
• Debt repayment plans can help employees pay down mountains of debt (e.g. student loans) that severely impacts their ability to be financially secure and set financial goals. If you can, help employees pay down their debt. If not, help them make a plan to pay it off faster.
• Contract with an Employee Assistance Plan (EAP) so employees can talk to counselors who can help them cope with financial strains and plan for getting out from under them.
• Look into using your company’s buying power to arrange for group discounts on items and services employees use to help them save expenses on insurance, technology, entertainment and the like.

Be certain to actively promote any financial wellness policies you implement and that someone in the know is available who can explain the benefits, so they know how to take advantage of these opportunities to the greatest degree. Having online resources so employees can satisfy their curiosity about them independently is also helpful.

In addition to those concrete actions, consider these less direct but still impactful ways to boost your employees’ financial wellness:

Create a culture of financial well-being within the company. Promote healthy financial habits such as lowering debt, establishing a monthly savings goal and bringing lunch to work rather than dining out. Make it a contest to see who makes the best financial progress.

Invite a financial consultant to give a presentation to your employees to educate them about investment opportunities and other wealth-building practices of which they can avail themselves. You may choose to tailor the presentations to certain relevant themes pertinent to your employees’ lives, such as financial advice for buying a home, welcoming a child or saving for college.

A visit from an IRS tax expert can help allay employees’ potential stress around tax time in general and around doing their taxes in particular.

Reward your high performers handsomely with raises, bonuses and extra vacation time. If you want them to remain superstars, they, especially, need to be able to take time off to recharge without financial concerns keeping them on edge.

No one needs more stress in their life. No matter the source of the stress, it affects job performance. And employees’ job performance affects your profits. It’s important to support your employees’ financial wellness by doing what you can to help them experience a sense of security in this area of their lives.

How do you support your employees’ financial well-being?