When it comes to
As historic inflation continues to challenge consumers' wallets, and with
"At Vanguard, we think about 401(k), HSA and medical as the three core components of our healthcare plan, and that's where we spend the most money," says Alexandra Gotts, head of global total rewards at the investment firm. "Rising costs are a lot for people to absorb, and this is where we do a lot of work around open enrollment to educate people on the best medical plan for them based on their health needs."
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Gotts has been with Vanguard for roughly five years. As she and her team work to deliver whole-person wellness to Vanguard employees during uncertain economic times, Gotts takes inspiration from how Vanguard treats its clients, and aims to emulate robust offerings for the company's employee base.
"When we think about benefits design, we really feel like we're a leader in the retirement space from a client perspective — and so we have to mirror that for our crew," Gotts says. "We eat our own cooking, as they say, and we strongly believe in
Gotts recently spoke to EBN about how she and her team approach whole-person health, and why financial wellness and healthcare are more intertwined than they may initially seem.
How are people feeling about their finances this year?
Given inflation, clients and our crew are nervous, right? We talk a lot in terms of the client base and where you put your next dollar. And typically, we always say: put that dollar in your
Do you see people making radical changes?
We really haven't. Gas is expensive, groceries are expensive, but people tend to look at where they spend on disposable things and cut there rather than from their long-term investments. But it is a real issue and people are nervous, and I worry about retirement readiness at organizations where people may choose to cut back on retirement savings.
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For employees who work someplace that doesn't match 401(k) contributions, how can they boost their savings?
If your employer match isn't there, how do you look at other things that may be available to you, such as an HSA? Do you start to put money away for health reasons? What's going to help you financially in retirement is your 401(k), but medical expenses are so expensive — I think the average couple is going to need $300,000 to cover healthcare expenses in retirement. So what can you be doing now that isn't going to take it out of your 401(k), effectively, when you do retire? And HSAs are great, they are tax advantageous, they can be used for medical expenses when you have something unexpected happen, but they really can be an avenue to save for retirement if the 401(k) isn't amazing where you are.
What are some of the most effective ways your team communicates with employees? I imagine that working at Vanguard puts your workforce ahead of the curve, but we know that benefits are always a challenge to understand.
I wouldn't assume that just because you're in the business that people understand retirement and benefits! For me, coming from a socialist country in the UK where healthcare is provided for, healthcare is wild here, and very hard to understand. But there are several mediums that are useful to us, though there's no one silver bullet. It's about giving people a variety of communications that can support how they like to learn. So it's about giving them tools to help them understand how much money they'll need in retirement, giving them an HSA calculator to help them understand what that converts to if you save X amount of money over the next 10 or 20 years. We'll also bring in vendors to talk to our crew about these benefits — we work with HealthEquity for our HSA and they came in to speak about how you can actually invest your HSA if you're not utilizing it.
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Beyond standard healthcare and financial wellness, how is Vanguard working to meet the shifting needs of its workforce?
People really are stressed, whether it is because of financial well-being or just coming off a pandemic, but mental health and emotional well-being is really important to people and their families. We have a great mental health offering with Lyra, which gives our crew 12 sessions — they find their own therapist online — and that's been very popular. We work with Wellthy to provide support for people who've got aging parents, or for people who need help finding child care facilities.
We also have a flex fund for health and wellness: $1,500 you can utilize on something health related, whether buying a Peloton or yoga classes, or landscaping if that makes their life easier, or purchase landscaping for aging parents if that makes their life easier. That's really a personalized benefit that's intended to make life easier. I had a woman who came up to me recently, and this flex fund helped her autistic son get after-school care, and she was so grateful because it eases up on her work day, knowing he's taken care of. If you're well and healthy and feel financially secure, we know our crew is going to show up for our clients in the right way.
