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Financial Wellness Month: How to Make the Most of It

Financial Wellness Month: How to Make the Most of It

by | Jan 16, 2019 | Blog

Financial Wellness Month: How to Make the Most of It. Employers can help reduce financial stress that hinders productivity by providing tools that help employees pay down debt and save for retirement.

January is National Financial Wellness Month! It’s perfect timing because Americans are facing their New Year’s resolutions and preparing for tax season.  

Here are 5 areas of financial wellness where employees need support most:

Helping Save More for Retirement

Employees experience debilitating financial stress when it comes to retirement and they want employers to provide tools and support that ensure they’ll have enough money saved to last through retirement.

Preparing for Future Healthcare Expenses

Long-term healthcare, like nursing homes or assisted living, is expensive and although 70 percent of Americans will need it, more than 60 percent have nothing saved.

Tackling Student Loan Debt

Student loan debt surpasses $1.5 trillion and it is affecting your workforce. Student loan debt is affecting all age groups, it’s keeping younger employees from major life milestones and it is making your employees sick.

Spending Smarter

More than half of Americans spend more than they earn and 70 percent consider their level of debt to be problematic. Almost 50 percent have credit card debt, more than 40 percent have a mortgage or a car loan and over 30 percent have student loan debt. Employees need help spending smarter so they can pay down their debt and start saving.

Bracing for Recession

There’s a 23 percent chance of a recession in the next 12 months, and employees are not ready for it. The Federal Reserve Bank’s latest report found 40 percent of U.S. households cannot cover a $400 emergency expense, leaving them unprepared and vulnerable to financial crisis in a recession.

How Employers Can Help

An effective financial wellness program, like Best Money Moves, can help employees budget spending better, pay down debt, save for emergencies and plan for retirement. Best Money Moves combines technology, information, smart tools and live money coaches to help employees measure their level of financial stress in 15 categories, and then sends relevant information and tools to help them reduce that stress.

Employees use the program’s point-based rewards system, which assigns point values to every action possible on the site from setting up income and expenses with the budgeting tool to reading articles and measuring stress. Each month Best Money Moves hosts a global contest with a cash prize for the user who has earned the most points during the month. This ongoing engagement strategy keeps usage at 25 to 51 percent.

What sets Best Money Moves apart? We aren’t trying to sell your employees anything and we aren’t a “robo-investment” platform because we believe that employees need unbiased information they can trust.

Learn more about how Best Money Moves can make a difference for your employees by contacting info@bestmoneymoves.com.

Read More:

Will Increasing Financial Literacy Reduce Overall Financial Stress?

First Look at the Future of Financial Wellness

What Does Financial Wellness Look Like for Women?

Financial Wellness Research Warrants Worry

Financial Support Limits Retirement Readiness for Parents

What Tops Financial Stress for Employees

Boost Employee Engagement and Loyalty with Financial Wellness

Money and Health are Tied Together. Here’s What We Know

Zombie Employees: Who Are They and What Do You Need to Know?

Zombie Employees: Who Are They and What Do You Need to Know?

by | Jan 16, 2019 | Blog

Zombie Employees: who are they and what do you need to know? This is the reason why employees are distracted, taking more time off and losing sleep.

Financial stress keeps 40 percent of Americans up at night, according to a new survey from Marcus by Goldman Sachs. This echoes research from Fidelity Investments, which found those with financial stress don’t get enough sleep and are more likely to be frequently stressed-out or anxious.

But employees aren’t just losing sleep. Financial stress can lead to poor health, lower productivity and higher absenteeism. The result is a disengaged workforce, a.k.a., zombie employees.

Zombie Employees, Financial Stress and Health

Nearly 90 percent of those surveyed by Marcus by Goldman Sachs agree financial well-being has an impact on their overall health. Willis Tower Watson found employees with high levels of financial stress are twice as likely to have poor health as opposed to those without financial stress. Employees struggling with finances are absent twice as often as those who are financially stable. Financial stress is so high, more than 25 percent of Americans skip necessary medical care because they’re unable to afford the cost, according to the 2017 Federal Report on Economic Well-Being.

Financial Stress at Work

Employees bring financial stress with them to work. Bank of America found more than 50 percent of employees who feel stressed report that it interferes with their ability to focus and be productive at work. More than 40 percent of employees spend 3 or more hours at work dealing with personal finance matters each week. John Hancock found 70 percent of financially stressed employees worry about personal finances at work, costing employers up to $2,000 annually per employee in lost productivity.

The good news is, a recent survey by Bankrate found almost 90 percent of Americans have a financial goal they’re hoping to accomplish in 2019, like paying down debt, budgeting spending better and saving more for retirement. The catch? They’ll need help to achieve their financial goals. Marcus by Goldman Sachs found almost 60 percent of Americans found tracking and budgeting expenses to be more stressful than activities like opening a new savings account or trying a new workout.  

Financial Wellness Programs

Employers can help zombie employees overcome financial stress and revive their work lives. A report by Ernst & Young found more than 40 percent of employees who are engaged with their financial wellness program are likely to remain productive in the office. The right financial wellness program will help employees reduce financial stress and its detrimental effects so they can bring focused productivity back to work.

More on Financial Stress and Employee Wellness

5 Must-Have Benefits for Millennial Employees

How Does Financial Wellness Affect Health?

5 Fast Financial Stress Statistics

Hiring Trends to Watch in 2020

What Is Financial Literacy and Why Is It Important?

4 Big Employee Benefit Trends for Family Planning

How Can Financial Wellness Be Improved?

Top 10 Employee Benefits for 2020

 

How to Support Mental Health at Work

How to Support Mental Health at Work

by | Jan 8, 2019 | Blog

How to support mental health at work: Manage work-related mental illness risk factors and encourage employees to engage with available mental health programs and benefits for improved health and higher productivity.

Nearly a quarter of U.S. workers have been diagnosed with depression and 40 percent of them take an average of 10 days off from work each year because of their mental illness, according to the American Psychiatric Association (APA).

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates depression and anxiety cost the global economy $1 trillion each year in lost productivity. The good news? WHO also estimates that for every $1 put into scaled up treatment for common mental disorders, there is a return of $4 in improved health and productivity.

Employers can start to minimize the effects of mental illness in the workplace by identifying work-related risk factors and simplifying access to mental health benefits.

The WHO identified work-related risks, like inadequate health and safety policies, poor communication and management practices, limited participation in decision making or low control over one’s area of work, low levels of support for employees, inflexible working hours and unclear tasks or organizational objectives, as factors that could negatively impact employees’ mental health. The WHO recommends offering flexible hours, job-redesign, addressing negative work dynamics, and supportive and confidential communication with management to help people with mental disorders continue or return to work.

Traditionally, employees have accessed mental health benefits using an employee assistance program (EAP), a time-consuming process where they’re screened by phone and directed to an in-network provider. Benefits providers have started looking for solutions that streamline access to mental health benefits, acknowledging how frustrating the traditional model can be.

Fairview, a health system based in Minneapolis, places a behavioral health provider onsite, or at the nearest clinic, for employees to consult with in person. “The system eliminates barriers; people will know where to go for help. And getting help sooner means that we’re more likely to resolve the issues earlier in the process. We believe that will save the employer money, both with claims costs and productivity,” says Rene Coult-Calendine, Vice President of Market and Product Development at Fairview.

Organizations should develop integrated health and well-being strategies that include mental health intervention, covering prevention, early identification, support and rehabilitation to better support mental health in the workplace. Communicating available programs or benefits, and, more importantly, encouraging their use can make a real difference when it comes to managing mental illness in the workplace.

How to Help Employees Save More for Retirement

How to Help Employees Save More for Retirement

by | Jan 2, 2019 | Blog

How to help employees save more for retirement. Employees experience debilitating financial stress when it comes to retirement and they want employers to provide tools and support that ensure they’ll have enough money saved to last through retirement.

A third of workers and a fifth of retirees are ‘overwhelmed’ or ‘paralyzed’ by their financial situations, according to the latest Retirement Study Reveal by Wells Fargo. Nearly 40 percent are unsure how much they’ve saved for retirement, or say living to age 85 would be a ‘financial hardship.’

Close to 70 percent of employees are concerned about running out of money in retirement and don’t know what they’d do if it happened. Almost 60 percent of retirees took retirement earlier than expected or started taking Social Security as soon as they could.

Most of the focus for retirement education and support has gone to Millennials and Baby Boomers, but GenXers are nearing the critical pre-retirement phase and experiencing high levels of financial stress.

Less than half of GenXers are saving enough for retirement. Only 45 percent of them have a detailed financial plan, less than all other generations. They’re sandwiched between the financial responsibilities of Millennial children and Boomer parents. More than 60 percent of GenXers want more help from employers with their retirement choices.

How to Help Employees Save More for Retirement

Across all three generations, nearly 90 percent of employees want a 401(k) statement with retirement income estimates. Roughly 60 percent say making savings last through retirement is the most important part of retirement planning. If employees receive a quarterly estimate of what they’ll have in retirement they can compare it with the national average income they’ll need and will likely be more motivated to adjust retirement contributions accordingly.

Employees with a ‘planning mindset’ are more than 40 percent less likely to have financial stress. A planning mindset is a tendency towards setting short-term and long-term financial goals. Those who have one are twice as likely to say they’re ‘thriving’ and have three times more household retirement savings than those without a planning mindset. Employer-sponsored tools that simplify and automate the planning process make it easier for employees to develop and maintain a planning mindset.

Employers can also help employees plan for retirement by giving them access to professionals who can answer questions, clarify the process and give them direction to improve their preparation. The Society for Human Resource Management found companies providing access to investment retirement advice increased almost 15 percentage points over the last five years, and over 50 percent of organizations offered online advice in 2018, a 50 percent increase from 2017.

More On Retirement Readiness and Financial Stress

Baby Boomer Retirement Statistics and Financial Stress

Retirement Concerns Aren’t Boosting Contributions

How to Help Employees Save More for Retirement

Retirement Concerns: Is Financial Literacy the Solution?

Financial Support Limits Retirement Readiness for Parents

Retirement Research Will Blow Your Mind

Financial Wellness Is About More Than Just Retirement Planning Advice

It’s Easy to Help Your Employees with Retirement Planning