More than half of American workers are planning to swap jobs in the next 12 months, according to a Bankrate survey, and for Gen Z, Millennial and BIPOC employees, the figure is even higher.
If you’re looking to recruit or simply retain top talent amid this great resignation, it may help to start with your current financial wellness offerings. While such benefits aren’t new, the pandemic has arguably accelerated some of the trends we’ve already seen — transforming financial wellness programs and solutions into a must-have corporate benefit.
Here’s how you can leverage this powerful tool to build deeper connections with your workforce.
The value of financial wellness benefits
There’s plenty of evidence that financially stressed employees aren’t fully engaged at work. According to an Employee Benefit Research Institute survey, over two-thirds of workers feel stressed thinking about their financial future, while 70% said they need their employer’s help to become financially healthy and secure. Sixty-three percent believe their employer has a responsibility to do so.
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Employee financial stress is estimated to cost American businesses billions of dollars in lost productivity. That’s where financial wellness benefits begin to make good business sense both for your bottom line and for employee retention. Employees want and expect financial wellness solutions from their employer and will stay with employers who provide them. Are you able to meet those expectations?
Connecting the dots
For a truly effective financial wellness program, you’ll want to bring together all your workplace benefits through financial planning and coaching, stay connected with your workforce through a structured communication and engagement strategy, and develop an effective way to keep tabs on what’s working and measure results.
You’ll also need to provide a seamless participant experience across all tech platforms, digital environments and support services — all the better if it’s personalized to each individual’s specific needs, key milestone events and important dates and actions. Intuitive tech solutions that give employees the tools they need to find answers and direct themselves on a comprehensive benefits journey can pay dividends in engagement and loyalty.
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Whatever you’re doing to collect and analyze employee data, make sure to do it regularly. Without regular assessment and analysis, how can you respond appropriately to the changing financial wellness needs of your workforce? This is an opportunity to get more strategic about how you invest in your employees. In a Morgan Stanley study with the National Association of Stock Plan Professionals, we asked publicly traded companies about their financial wellness programs. While the most-requested benefit is a retirement plan, employers also said their employees are looking for help with budgeting, savings, managing student loan debt and access to personal financial guidance or advisers.
Consider your employees’ unique needs
Make sure to tailor your programs for the unique needs of various constituencies within your employee population. Since a higher percentage of Gen Z, Millennial and BIPOC employees are contemplating leaving their jobs, your financial wellness offerings should be designed with them in mind.
For Gen Z and Millennials, a multi-channel delivery system for financial education, guidance and advice that includes a digital component will go a long way toward keeping this segment engaged. For BIPOC employees, involving the input of your Employee Resource Groups can help you select the financial wellness offerings best suited to the needs of today’s diverse workforce.
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Personalizing your benefits for your population begins with gathering the right data and providing the right tech, so you can truly empower your people to engage seamlessly with their benefits and make the choices that make the most sense for where they are today.
Helping employees feel financially secure
If you want to keep your talent, think about how to implement financial wellness benefits — or improve your current menu. Use cross-promotion and education to connect the different benefits you offer — like equity compensation, retirement plans, student debt consolidation or Health Savings Accounts.
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Financial wellness is the connective tissue for all workplace benefits — a lens into where benefits fit holistically into an employee’s financial plan. When employees have a better understanding of the importance of saving for retirement, how to use equity compensation to build intergenerational wealth and ways to choose cost-efficient options for healthcare, they’re more likely to take the steps necessary to improve their financial situation.
An effective employer-sponsored financial wellness program makes employees feel seen, heard and valued. It lets them know the company cares about their financial goals and wants them to succeed not only in work but also in life.
