Financial Wellbeing & Its Role in a Complete Employee Wellbeing Program

Financial wellbeing and its role in a complete employee wellbeing program. In this guest post, DHS Group‘s VP of Employer Solutions, Rich Siegenthaler, recommends four ways your employee wellness program can keep up with changes in the benefits industry. The opinions expressed in this blog belong to the author and DHS Group.

It’s getting more and more common to see employers focusing on strategies to assist their employee population in managing their complete wellbeing rather than one single area. They’re accomplishing this by adding programs that benefit the financial wellbeing and mental health of employees. This is a step in the right direction that’s quickly leading to healthier employees in every sense of the word.

Maybe you’re already putting some of these strategies to work or maybe you’re hoping to in the near future. Wherever you are in the journey, DHS Group’s VP of Employer Solutions and experienced employee wellbeing professional, Rich Siegenthaler, has a few recommendations to get you started and make sure you’re on the right path to complete employee wellbeing.

Expand Beyond Traditional Wellness Programs

Traditional wellness programs put surface programs at the forefront – think: step challenges – while these are important, the industry is changing and what employees are looking for is changing.

Integrate Mental Health Programs

For years, mental health has been something that both employees and employers have strayed away from discussing with each other. However, as mental health conditions are spreading rapidly – with issues like anxiety, depression and worry being dealt with by people everywhere – employers can’t afford to not offer these types of programs as part of their wellbeing plans.

Provide Financial Wellness Programming

The number one stressors in American households today are financial. While employees do need to understand how to invest their resources in traditional ways (like 401Ks), the new trend is to provide tools for employees to manage their day-to-day and month-to-month budgets.

Many times, employees say they understand they need to put more into their 401K, but know that if they do, they will not be able to pay their bills. Financial wellness programming helps people look at their earnings, bills and expenses, and learn how to manage them more effectively. It is a day-to-day management strategy that helps employees lead a more comfortable and accountable lifestyle when it comes to their financial health.

Improve Communication

However you decide to start expanding your wellbeing program to a more complete package – communication is key. There will be growing pains, but in order to help lessen those, remember that your employees are people too. Open up the lines of communication to hear from your employees about what they’re looking for overall and what they are looking for in their wellbeing programs.

Before you do anything, the ultimate first step is to look at your workforce, your employee demographics and how your very own organization operates. Then, with these details in mind, alongside Rich’s recommendations above, you’ll be well on your way to a complete wellbeing program that benefits the employee AND the employer.

Learn more about bringing complete wellbeing to your employees with DHS Group’s HealthSpective Engage program here.