The ROI of Financial Wellness Programs
Employees who suffer from financial stress are not only at risk of losing their jobs but they also can find it difficult to be engaged and productive. The daily challenges of making ends meet can take a toll.
Providing financial wellness programs for your employees helps them manage their personal finances, which can, in turn, lead to increased job satisfaction and higher productivity.
Why Financial Wellness Matters
1 in 3 employees admits to being less productive at work because of their financial stress. (According to MetLife)
There are many benefits of helping your employees deal with financial stress. It’s part of good corporate citizenship, but it also makes sense from a business perspective. Helping employees cope with financial pressure can help reduce work stress and even improve productivity.
Financial well-being is just as important as other forms of wellness. That’s why helping employees manage their financial stress has become a major focus area for employers across the country.
Benefits of Financial Wellness
When financial health is addressed with enough care and attention, it can have measurable benefits on key business metrics such as:
- Turnover rate
- Customer retention
- Early retirement options
- Job satisfaction
- Engagement level
- Recruitment process time and costs
- Employee productivity
Many employers have started offering financial wellness as part of an annual check-up. Having employees complete the financial version of this examination is one way you can gauge whether your efforts are helping people get on track toward improved credit scores and increased savings.
Signs That Your Employees Are Stressed
Increased anxiety, decreased motivation, and lackluster performance are all obvious indicators of poor financial wellbeing in the workplace. This pain is real – particularly for individuals under 30 years old. They carry an average of $37,693 in student loan debt.
Financial stress is defined as “emotional tension that is specifically related to money.”
Employees who experience financial stress are more likely than their peers to experience health issues.
When left untreated, financial stress can lead to anxiety disorders, heart disease, high blood pressure, and many other health problems that affect an employee’s well-being.
Employers have a major opportunity to take an active role in helping employees deal with financial stress. They can help employees manage debt, save for retirement, get a handle on their healthcare costs, fund college degrees, and more.
Even just helping employees put together a plan for tackling life’s biggest expenses can change the conversation from stress to solutions.
Poor Financial Wellbeing for Employees Can Affect Your Bottom Line
It’s easy to see the direct impact that this lack of financial education can have on your organization’s bottom line. What may be more surprising is how helping employee financial wellbeing can also boost morale, increase productivity, reduce turnover, cut healthcare costs–and ultimately save your business money too.
Your Role in Empowering Employees’ Financial Confidence
Your role as an employer in empowering employees’ financial confidence is vital to financial wellness in the workplace.
Employers who provide financial wellness programs are less likely to face financial stress-related issues, employees with occupational stress, and financial losses. Employee benefit services like these help you and your employees.
The introduction of financial wellness programs in workplaces has been shown to have three main benefits:
Three main benefits of implementing Financial Wellness programs:
- Wellness and finances programs help employees with their financial futures, helping provide stability and peace of mind.
- Financial wellness programs promote employee engagement and loyalty.
- When employees feel financially secure, they can focus more on what is important in their jobs and in life.
The ROI of a Good Financial Wellness Program
There are many factors that contribute towards ROI, including the costs associated with implementing a financial wellness program. Many organizations find it difficult to measure financial benefits of their financial wellness initiatives. They lack information on how financially stressed employees were before taking part in the program.
The financial benefits of financial wellness initiatives vary from one organization to another. Before estimating the financial benefits of financial wellness initiatives for your company, make sure to consult with a financial wellness expert who can help you assess costs and employee satisfaction levels.
Once you have these figures, use them as baseline measurements and monitor improvements over time to estimate ROI.
Examples of ROI associated with implementing a financial wellness program:
- A financial wellness program can help employees manage financial stress, improve financial health and develop financial confidence.
- This can result in improved financial wellness, employee satisfaction and lower employee turnover.
- Financial wellness programs are good investments that deliver financial benefits to businesses through increased productivity, reduced absenteeism and decreased healthcare costs.
- Financial wellness initiatives also help companies experience reduced health care costs by helping employees be healthier and live longer.
- You should also include other less direct benefits in your estimate of ROI, including improved employee satisfaction levels.
The Costs of a Financial Wellness Program
The implementation of a financial wellness program is entirely manageable for any size company. The advantages of implementing a financial wellness program for your staff will greatly outweigh the expense.
There are several other benefits to be had by setting up a financial workplace wellness program, including:
Tax Benefits
Employees will learn how to save for retirement and you'll get the tax benefits. The more people participate in your 401(k), the better.
Employee Health
Healthcare premiums have decreased and there have been fewer workplace accidents. The employee's stress and persistent illness contribute to increased healthcare expenditures and the risk of workplace accidents.
Reduced Administrative Expenses
Employees who take advantage of pre-tax health benefits, such as Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), will have lower payroll taxes deducted from their paychecks. HSA or pre-tax health benefit usage has a negative influence on Social Security payroll and contributions.
Hiring Advantages
Workers should be able to retire on schedule. Companies can better predict when they may need more people and employees have greater security in knowing that their job will end.
What 101 Financial Can Do for Your Company
We can successfully implement a program that is tailored to your workforce’s needs. By customizing our online course to meet your employees’ individual knowledge levels, financial goals, and work environment, we are able to effectively communicate with every employee about financial wellness matters.
We’ll also provide interactive education sessions that are specific to each employee job role or employee level within your organization. This allows us to deliver targeted financial management educational content relevant to your workforce’s needs – whether they are sales people who need to make convincing asset-allocation pitches or an entry-level team member looking for basic money management guidance.
What You’ll Learn
- Why employees worry about finances
- The impact of stress
- What is the stigma of financial stress
- An Employer's Role
- Empowering Employees
- The Cost of Delayed Retirement
- How to estimate ROI
- The costs of financial wellness programs
How Can Financial Wellness Help Your Company?
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