Given everything they've been through the past two years, employees know the importance of a 'rainy day' fund. And companies are stepping up to help them build one.
Beginning on September 19, Starbucks will roll out My Starbucks Savings, their new short-term savings benefit in partnership with financial services company Fidelity. All eligible U.S. employees will be able to contribute a portion of after-tax pay on a recurring basis directly from their paycheck to a personal savings account.
The offering is an extension of Fidelity's Goal Booster program, a free digital saving and investing service launched in 2019, designed to help users save for goals outside retirement, including emergency savings — which often get neglected, especially by hourly workers.
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"Because we're all human, there can be moments where suddenly those dollars that you intended to promise towards your emergency savings get taken for other more immediate expenses," says Emily Kolle, vice president of product management at Fidelity. "It takes that friction away. It automates the payments and takes the amount out of the paycheck before it hits their checking account."
But simply offering a savings solution isn't always enough to get employees to actually use it. Starbucks is incentivizing their employees to engage and save by contributing $25 and $50 credits when employees hit critical saving milestones. The company will provide up to $250 per employee.
Starbucks is also tackling another financial hurdle many employees face through a new partnership with Tuition.io. The Student Loan Management Benefit gives employees access to resources and individual coaching to manage student loan debt, such as repayment options and loan refinancing, including income-based repayment options.
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This kind of focus on employees' financial well-being will be critical moving forward, according to Kolle. The pandemic taught employees and employers that emergencies are always around the corner, and paired with rising prices of food, real estate, healthcare and transportation, employees are reevaluating their savings habits and will be turning to their employers for support.
"We see it from employees coming and looking for help, needing and wanting to develop an emergency savings fund or buffer so that they can weather those unexpected emergency moments," Kolle says. "And employers are in a unique position to help in this environment as people are really looking for it."
