2018 - Page 6 of 18 - Best Money Moves

Why Are Millennials so Distracted at Work?

by LizStevens | Aug 28, 2018 | Blog

Financial stress is a huge work distraction for Millennials in debt and it’s costing the American economy billions. The statistics on student loan debt in this article have been updated as of February 20, 2020.

Millennials are now the largest generation in the American labor force and they’re distracted by an overwhelming amount of debt. Human resource departments are overwhelmed with solving new issues around financial stress that Millennials are bringing to the office every day.

Around 44.7 million out of 171.3 million American adults have student loan debt and the total amount of outstanding student loan debt passed $1.5 trillion in 2020. The average monthly student loan payment is nearly $400 and roughly 10 percent of borrowers have defaulted on their student loans.

Most millennials have nothing saved for retirement and of those that do, research from E-Trade revealed that 60 percent have already taken an early withdrawal from their 401(k). Nearly half of them use credit cards for monthly necessities they couldn’t afford otherwise.

Millennials are also falling behind when it comes to major life events like getting married and buying a home. All of this affects their work performance, including productivity, retention and turnover, unexplained absences, and presenteeism.

According to a PwC study, almost 60 percent of millennials are financially stressed. Money is a huge issue for them. Bank of America found they spend an average of 4 hours a week on personal finances at work. Close to 20 percent of them have missed days at work due to financial stress.

The American Psychological Association found that financial stress is responsible for 40 percent of turnover and 60 percent of workplace accidents. More than 20 percent of Millennials have changed jobs in the past year (a number 3x higher than those outside that demographic) and Gallup estimates Millennial turnover costs the American economy close to $30 billion per year. It’s advantageous for employers to help employees reduce financial stress to take back productivity and reduce absenteeism, turnover and workplace accidents.

One thing experts agree on: Millennials want help navigating their financial futures. Over 90 percent of Millennials surveyed by Bank of America say they would participate in a financial education program provided by their employer. In the same survey, roughly 80 percent of Millennials say their employer was influential in getting them to save for retirement. According to Willis Towers Watson research, employees are looking for financial wellness tools to track spending, saving, assess their financial position, and set financial goals.

With an extremely tight labor market, employers have become highly motivated to address their Millennial employees’ desire to gain financial wellness. What the early adopters of best-in-class financial wellness programs have begun to see is that greater employee financial wellness also improves productivity and retention, and helps them stay competitive in a tight labor market.

As part of a larger financial wellness program, some companies have instituted a student loan benefit and the IRS approved tax-free employer matched 401(k) contributions for student loan repayments in 2018. The Society of Human Resources (SHRM) reported over 50 percent of U.S. companies offered financial wellness programs in 2019, more than doubling the less than 25 percent who did so in 2015.

Even though more employers are offering financial wellness programs it doesn’t mean employees are using them. In other words, if you offer a financial wellness program that isn’t sophisticated, mobile-first, in the cloud, that offers different kinds of assessment tools and personalized information and solutions, it may well get overlooked in the sea of other benefit paperwork that has to be reviewed and managed.

For increased employee engagement select a financial wellness program, like Best Money Moves, that has the tools, information, and functionality your employees need. Best Money Moves is a mobile-first service that offers budgeting, resource articles, confidential counseling, free credit score, and personalized information and solutions for employees to use to measure and dial down their financial stress.

All of which will help your employees settle down and get back to work.

If you want to learn more about how Best Money Moves can bring financial wellness to your company download our whitepapers and sign up for a demonstration here.

10 Quick Highlights from SHRM’s 2018 Benefits Report

by LizStevens | Aug 21, 2018 | Blog

SHRM’s 2018 employee benefits report is out and we’ve got the top 10 highlights on topics like healthcare, retirement, paid leave, and wellness programs.

Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM)’s 2018 Employee Benefits report is here just in time for National Wellness Month!

Here are our quick 10 takeaways:

Healthcare is Essential. An impressive 95 percent of companies with less than 50 full-time employees provide some form of healthcare coverage even though they aren’t obligated to.
Keep it Casual. More than 60 percent of organizations offer casual dress benefits. The most popular benefit is one day per week when employees are welcome to “dress down.”
Referral Rewards. Employee referral bonuses increased by 10 percent (to 51%) since 2014. Low unemployment and tight competition makes it that much harder to find quality hires, so why not reward great employees for great referrals?
Investment Retirement Advice. Over half of organizations offer either one-on-one or online investment retirement advice to their employees to help reduce stress concerning retirement readiness.
Wellness Challenges Work. Companies hosting competitions and challenges grew 10 percent over the last year. Competitions and challenges can be effective tools to increase engagement with wellness benefits.
Flexibility Bonus Benefits. Flexible work arrangements are a win-win. Employees experience a better work-life balance. Employers get a reduction of “real estate” costs and are better suited to match customer demands of a 24/7 culture.
Tech Benefit Trends. More than half of organizations offer company-owned smartphones for business and personal use. Surprisingly, almost 20 percent of companies offer free computers for employees’ personal use.
Smoking Costs. Nearly 20 percent of organizations charge a higher premium for healthcare coverage of employees who smoke because of the numerous health risks smoking poses.
Unused Paid Leave. Employees fear falling behind, don’t believe anyone else will step in while they were away, or want to show how dedicated they are to their job. Encouraging employees to use vacation time may reduce turnover and its associated costs.
Stress Management Matters. Stress can be detrimental to productivity, and there’s no shortage of things for Americans to stress about, so it makes sense that companies offering onsite stress management programs as a benefit tripled over the past 5 years.

Effective wellness benefits lower stress, create a better work-life balance and give employees the chance to relax on their off time so they return with higher job satisfaction and improved productivity. Take advantage of National Wellness Month as an opportunity to review your current wellness plan and determine what the best benefits are for your employees.

What Are Your Employees Hiding From You?

by LizStevens | Aug 15, 2018 | Blog

It’s about time you learn what your employees don’t want you to know about their financial situations. Find out what “faking normal” is and how wellness benefits can reduce financial stress.

“Faking normal” is a term that Elizabeth White uses in her powerful TED talk on the personal finance crisis in America. The term describes what most Americans’ facing serious financial instability are prone to do – pretend everything is fine. Some of your employees are probably “faking normal” right now.

“The truth is it really doesn’t take much. The median household in the US only has enough savings to replace 1 month of income. 47 percent of us cannot pull together $400 to deal with an emergency. A major car repair and we’re standing at the abyss,” White says. This is a reality for many Americans, regardless of education or employment history.

“Shame keeps us silent and siloed,” she adds, “We live in a world where success is defined by income. When you say that you have money problems you’re announcing, pretty much, that you’re a loser.” For many of those struggling with debt, the people closest to them would never know because they take great pains to hide what’s considered to be a failing.

White believes individuals need to hold themselves accountable financial failings, but it’s important employers recognize, “systemic factors that have caused a $7.7 trillion retirement income gap,” like, “flat and falling wages, disappearing pensions, through the roof costs on housing, pension, healthcare and education,” that have built over the last three decades.

Until there’s large-scale reform to address the financial crisis, White recommends “smalling up.” She describes it as, “figuring out what you really need to feel contented and grounded.” An example she uses is a friend that drives beat-up cars but loves music so much they would scrape to save and spend $15,000 on a flute. Employers offering financial wellness benefits can help employees recover from debt and build budgets so they can spend their money on what matters most to them.

White says it’s also time for skilled workers to embrace “bridge work,” which she describes as jobs that don’t utilize the education or work experience that someone may have built up. She’s not suggesting that people be content with it, she’s suggesting that “bridge work is what we do in the meantime while we’re figuring out what is next.” Supporting employees that might need to work a side hustle to pay down debt and build savings can reduce some of the stress associated with maintaining appearances that all is well.

It’s clear that even if employees are well educated and appear financially sound, there’s a good chance that some of them are acting as if everything is normal while dealing with high levels of financial stress. Employers who acknowledge this and offer financial wellness benefits are likely to see an ROI with higher job satisfaction and thus, better retention.

Revealing Research on Financial Stress and Productivity

by LizStevens | Aug 14, 2018 | Blog

Revealing research from Fidelity Investments highlights the toll financial stress takes on productivity through increased absenteeism.

Absenteeism doubles for employees with high levels of debt, according to a recent study by Fidelity Investments.

The study focused on the four pillars of well-being (financial, health, work, and life) and found that employees struggle most with their financial well-being. A whopping 98 percent of respondents reported feeling stressed in the past three months. Employees reported high levels of stress caused by debt (33%), saving for the future (34%), their job (47%), and their weight (30%).

Workers with high levels of debt were very unlikely to be in “excellent” health, only 14% compared with 35% of workers without debt issues. Those struggling with debt were also less likely to get enough sleep and more likely to be frequently stressed or anxious. On average, employees with the highest levels of debt missed an additional full week of work more than those with the lowest levels of debt.

Past-due medical bills were the leading indicator of workplace absenteeism, followed by payday loans, personal loans, retirement plans, and mortgages. Surprisingly, student loans and credit card debt were not significant causes for employees to miss work.

“When it comes to total well-being programs, employers have traditionally focused on health, but have recently expanded efforts to include financial wellness. Financial wellness programs have gone a long way toward helping workers to create a budget they can live with and have helped many employees consolidate and/or minimize debt,” said Jeanne Thompson, head of Global Workplace Insights, Fidelity Investments.

Strong healthcare plans, retirement plans, and payday advance programs could reduce absenteeism and help employers take back productivity. In order for those systems to be effective, however, employees must learn how to manage their money. Financial wellness programs, like Best Money Moves, lower the high levels of financial stress employees experience by helping them take control of their personal finances.

How Can You Make Teams Work for Your Business?

by LizStevens | Aug 13, 2018 | Blog

Insights from a recent survey from Imprev, a leader in real estate marketing automation, on real estate brokerage teams can be applied to any business in any industry that operates with teams.

“We knew teams were making a powerful impact on real estate. There are many fantastic studies out there covering the inner workings of teams, but we felt there was a need to understand teams from leadership’s perspective,” shares Renwick Congdon, CEO of Imprev.

Healthy competition between teams boosts productivity, retention, engagement and job satisfaction but nearly half of Imprev’s respondents agreed that teams are hard to manage. Although 73 percent of organizations have policies and guidelines for teams to follow, like adjusted commission structures and legal guidelines, organizations felt managers could do a better job serving teams.

Finding solutions that work isn’t as hard as it seems. “Based on brokers’ feedback, the key at the moment seems to be putting more comprehensive policies and frameworks in place to ensure team leaders and brokers build strong, mutually beneficial relationships,” says Congdon.

Organizational changes, such as providing guidelines, technology, orientations and mentoring to support teams proved most beneficial to brokerages. One broker’s suggestion was to, “Train them [managers] how to build a team that is sustainable. Teach them how to hire properly.” These solutions may seem simple but don’t underestimate how costly and time-consuming it can be to develop or update materials and train teams to implement new technology.

Still, as you think about how to train your team to better help your business, it might be worth the effort and cost to make a valuable asset more effective. Teams helped organizations build their businesses and influenced total sales volume over the last five years for almost 80 percent of respondents. Most agreed that teams aren’t a competitive threat and don’t diminish the power of their brand. And more than 65 percent continue to encourage the creation of teams.

The study found that teams were responsible for roughly 30 percent of overall sales. Improving that even by 5 percent could bring in meaningful revenue while building more cohesive and engaged teams.

“With a clear structure, a brokerage is more likely to build a mutually beneficial relationship with teams and drive greater success overall,” says Congdon.