Written by: Gilles Hudelot, Director of Education
As a business owner, it can often feel difficult to maintain a productive workforce while managing slim profit margins or poor cash flow. You want to provide more benefits and opportunities for your workers, but you’re unsure if the investments will pay off in the end. Moreover, you may not have the risk tolerance to take that chance. Fortunately, numerous studies have shown that increasing financial health and providing financial wellness programs to employees consistently drives employee engagement and pays dividends over the long term.
What Is Financial Wellness?
Contrary to popular belief, financial wellness is not fixed to a specific dollar amount, but rather a position of physical and mental well-being. The salary that will ensure the financial wellness of one person will not apply to another. In fact, setting goals based on numbers is often not the best strategy. Instead, improving financial wellness comes down to getting a person into a good place based on various aspects of their lives, including their workload, stress, family life, education, and career opportunities. Income is just one of many factors that contribute to financial wellness, but ultimately, getting the right education to make sound financial decisions is the best way to achieve financial wellness and greater peace of mind.
Case Studies On Financial Wellness & Employee Engagement
From an employer perspective, it’s important to look at the hard evidence and relationship between financial wellness education and employee engagement. The studies below show that if employees have financial stress, they will be much more distracted at work. In most cases, they will not be able to engage. They will have to take time away from their job to deal with financial issues or their focus will be on financial stress, rather than adding value as an employee. Alternatively, when given access to useful financial wellness education, employees are far more engaged with their work, their finances, and their employer.
Employee Engagement & Financial Wellness Facts:
- Chubb Insurance started its own Employee Assistance Program in 2018, which included free 30-minute calls with expert financial advisors. Since the program began in 2018, employee engagement in the company’s financial initiatives rose significantly. Additionally, productivity increased and medical costs related to stress dropped. [1]
- The city government of Denver, Colorado found that increased benefits education, guided focus groups, and regular financial health initiatives can lead to greater “employee retention, a potential reduction in employee stress and in annual health care costs per employee, greater employee engagement, and fewer days missed per year due to unexpected illness.” [2]
- An extensive study by the Center for Social Development at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work found that a majority of employers who provided financial wellness programs for employees reported “positive improvements in job satisfaction, company loyalty, and productivity.” [3]
These are just a few examples, but they all show the inherent benefits of investing in the financial wellness of your workforce.
How Employers & Employees Can Benefit From Mentoro
Financial wellness and employee engagement can serve a purpose both at home and at work. By engaging with employees’ specific goals and financial needs, employers show the ability to stay connected with their employees and have employees understand what they are offering to them. If an employer offers financial wellness education, it is just another way to show that they care about the employee’s well-being.
For employers, there’s an ROI to provide financial wellness education as an employee benefit. If low-maintenance initiatives can enhance employee engagement and wellness at the same time, it ensures that both employers and employees can see greater results. Based on our work at Mentoro, one-on-one consultations with financial experts have proven to be one of the most popular and helpful aspects of financial wellness education programs.
There is plenty of tech out there to help people manage their finances, but talking directly to an expert about their financial situation can really help an employee develop a specific strategy to address their needs. At Mentoro, we give employees an assessment that allows us to analyze the data and see what they really need within the business, both at the organizational and individual levels. Some employees have relatively low incomes, while some have higher incomes. This means that every business requires a nuanced approach to financial health and wellness programs. In short, developing catered employee financial wellness initiatives can help improve overall satisfaction within the company, enhancing both productivity and employee engagement.
If you are currently in the market for a financial education company or you want to learn more about the benefits of financial wellness education and enhanced employee engagement, be sure to contact the experts at Mentoro today!
