Americans had a record year of holiday spending. The National Retail Federation estimated  shoppers spent between $834.4 billion to $859 billion. 

The bad news is that your employees may be feeling the effects of overspending. Research shows that financial stress tends to make its way into the workplace, reducing productivity, causing burnout and negatively impacting employee health.

If you’re finding that your workforce is struggling after the holiday season, you may try incorporating financial wellness in your benefits packages.

Financial Wellness: The Cure for Your Employee Holiday Spending Hangover

A report from PwC found that 87% of employees want help when it comes to personal finance, and programs like Best Money Moves have proven to be the solution. Financial wellness programs can improve overall health and well-being, leading to lower stress, lower healthcare costs and a lower risk of employee burnout and resignation. 

Best Money Moves uses artificial intelligence to power a mobile-first platform that measures employee financial stress, then dials it down with a unique content-mapping system. The program addresses your employees’ pain points with a variety of tools, from budgeting help to financial calculators and wide-ranging resources on topics like debt reduction and savings plans. 

These are only a few of the many features Best Money Moves has to offer: 

An intuitive budgeting tool to get employee spending back on track.

When money is tight following a busy holiday season, budgeting is often the perfect antidote. Best Money Moves’ budget tool is easy to understand and takes into account each user’s unique spending and saving needs, helping people learn how to manage every dollar more effectively. This simple step can reduce financial stress and improve the health and happiness of your workforce.

Financial calculators for your employees’ unique needs.

Best Money Moves’ financial calculators can also help employees with their financial goals. For example, the emergency savings calculator will determine how a user can best build, or re-build, a robust safety net for themselves or their family. This may be particularly useful after an expensive holiday season, as many people find themselves spending beyond their budget or needing to dip into savings accounts. A holiday survey from American Express found that 86% of millennials — the largest generation in the workforce — spent more money during the holidays than they planned to in 2020. Over one fifth of those who overspent went over budget by about $500 or more.

A library of 800+ resources on topics across the financial spectrum.

The resources on Best Money Moves are extensive and broken down by topic, including general money management, paying bills, healthcare costs, overall debt and more. The various articles can help employees learn more and take control of their finances, in turn helping your workplace become a more productive and happier environment. For example, according to LendingTree, consumers racked up more debt than during the 2020 holiday season, with the average borrower taking on $1,249. Resources on debt, especially credit card debt, are applicable to the post-holiday season, when many Americans have residual debt from increased spending.

To learn more about Best Money Moves Financial Wellness Platform, let’s schedule a call. Contact us and we’ll reach out to you soon.

Financial wellness is 2022’s must-have employee benefit. According to Corporate Insight’s Workplace Finance Monitor Report, 85% of employees without a financial wellness program want one. 

However, not all financial wellness programs are created equal. The most successful programs include features tailored to the employees that use them.

Here are 5 top program features for your 2022 financial wellness platform.

1. Look for financial wellness programs that utilize a holistic approach to money.

Each one of your employees has to navigate their financial health ⸺ that’s one of the top appeals of offering financial wellness benefits. However the money management needs of a veteran employee about to retire are going to look very different than those of a recent grad dealing with credit card debt.

So, financial wellness programs are most useful to employees if they can encompass all facets of financial health. From paying down immediate debt to reaching long-term goals, an all-encompassing program will grow with your employees and offer something for those at any stage. Best Money Moves offers solutions for users from any financial background. Whether it’s basic budgeting, complex debt repayment, funding an education or planning for the future, the platform offers something that all employees can use.

2. Give your employees professional, personalized advice.

While it’s important for financial wellness platforms to cover the financial spectrum, an effective program will also include specialty features that pertain to each employee’s unique situation. Offering specialized, professional advice can also help engage demographics otherwise less likely to use financial benefits. Female participants and those with lower household income are less likely to enroll in financial wellness programs and are more likely to reach out to a friend for financial advice. Best Money Moves takes in user data to highlight stress points and uses them to suggest resources. The platform helps employees connect to other, personalized services from our comprehensive list of verified partners.

3. Consider platforms with actionable resources.

The Workplace Monitor Report also found that, among employees who had access to financial wellness programs, financial goal tracking and budgeting resources were amongst the highest rated features. The Best Money Moves Budget tool is a detailed feature that allows users to input their income, expenses and savings to give a comprehensive breakdown of how to spend your money. Users enter information about how they currently allocate their budget and Best Money Moves helps highlight areas of success and concern. The platform also includes intuitive calculators and a savings and debt tracker that allow employees to monitor long-term financial progress. Best Money Moves also offers unique user Journeys that take employees step-by-step through large financial decisions such as buying a home or a car.

4. Engage your employees with easy to use platforms.

For your employees to get what they need out of a financial wellness program, those programs need to be easy-to-use. That’s why Best Money Moves focuses on providing financial education for employees of all experience levels. Users of any financial experience  can find what they need in a library of over 800 articles, videos and webinars. Even a 10-minute session on the site on desktop or mobile can get users started on their financial journey.

5. Find financial wellness programs that keep track of your team’s progress.

An integral part of effective financial wellness programs involve showing employees the progress they’ve made on their personal finance goals. Keeping these goals in mind allows employees to find long-term solutions to their problems, instead of quick fixes. Best Money Moves provides several features that help users track their financial journey over the course of months, or even years. Plus, Best Money Moves is designed to provide employers with anonymous feedback about which financial challenges their employees are struggling with most. In this way, employers can offer other benefits and solutions targeted to their team’s unique pain points.

To learn more about Best Money Moves Financial Wellness Platform, let’s schedule a call. Contact us and we’ll reach out to you soon.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a long-lasting impact on your employees’ financial health. According to a study by Morgan Stanley and SHRM more than one in four employees report financial trouble related to the pandemic. In the same study, 31% of employees reported having finance-related anxiety.

Financial wellness programs are a must-have for your 2022 benefits strategy. Here’s how these programs can offer a lifeline for your team.

Financial Wellness is the must-have employee benefit for 2022

Money management is a universal issue for your employees, whether they’re fresh out of college or approaching retirement age. But not all of your employees are financially stable. In fact, according to data from CapitalOne, 73 percent of Americans rank their finances as their top source of stress. The problem has only grown over the last few years due to the significant economic strain of the pandemic. 

Long-term financial stress has far-reaching effects on those struggling with debt and other challenges. Twenty-three percent of Americans report that their financial challenges keep them from a full night’s sleep and financial stress has long been linked to an increase in anxiety, depression and burnout. Meanwhile, around the office, financially stressed employees are often less focused, less productive and at a greater risk of employee turnover than their financially stable peers. 

That’s why comprehensive financial wellness programs, like Best Money Moves,  aim to allow employees to take control of their finances on their own terms. 

What employees want from financial wellness programs

Adding financial wellness programs to an employer’s benefits package is a great way to meet the needs of employees. According to a SHRM survey, 74% of employers have not added benefits that address employee’s financial stress since the beginning of the pandemic. However, in the same survey, over half of the employees said they wanted some form of financial wellness benefits. 

Seventy-seven percent of employees want retirement planning and 54 percent of employees want safety net insurance as a part of their financial wellness programs. Employees also want advice from professionals. Employees listed access to a financial advisor, information on retirement plans, and help developing good financial skills and habits as three problem areas that they want their employers to address.  

It’s not just the employees that reap the rewards of these benefits. According to a Bank of America survey, 8 out of 10 employers surveyed agreed that including a financial wellness program led to more productive, engaged and loyal employees.

Best Money Moves can help

If you’re looking for a first-in-class financial wellness solution, Best Money Moves could be the answer you need. Best Money Moves is a financial wellness program that provides all the guidance and support employees need to help them reduce their financial stress. It has tools and features that help employees measure their financial stress, budget for monthly expenses, pay down debt and plan for emergencies. 

Employees can talk to trained professional financial counselors and educate themselves about everything from investing to co-signing loans and buying their first homes with access to a library of over 700 articles, videos and calculators. 

Best Money Moves is also gamified, featuring a point-based rewards system where users earn points every time they log in, enter their information into their profile, work with their budgets, read articles and measure their stress. Each point translates into a chance to win a monthly contest.

Employers want a financial wellness program that is expansive, engaging and suited to meet each of their employee’s unique needs and they’ve found it in Best Money Moves.

If you want to learn more about how Best Money Moves can bring financial wellness to your company, download our whitepapers.

2022 is right around the corner, and with it comes a new opportunity to update your benefits offerings to better serve your employees. 

Here are five benefits trends we’ve identified as must-haves for 2022:

1. Financial wellness programs.

Finances consistently rank as a top stressor for employees, but many employers remain unaware of the impacts of long-term financial stress. The reality is, prolonged financial stress can result in anxiety, depression and burnout for employees and can even contribute to higher turnover and decreased productivity. In a recent MetLife survey, 27 percent of employees said they are less productive at work because of financial worries, an increase from 23 percent just six months prior. 

Financial wellness programs, like Best Money Moves, can help employees regain control of their finances. Best Money Moves has tools and features that help employees measure their financial stress, budget for monthly expenses, pay down debt and plan for emergencies. Employees can talk to trained professional financial counselors and educate themselves about everything from investing to co-signing loans to buying their first homes with access to a library of over 700 articles, videos and calculators.

2. Accessible paid leave.

In 2021, the White House introduced the American Families Plan, which includes a comprehensive parental, medical and family leave program. Regardless of whether the plan is passed, however, it indicates a real shift in how Americans are thinking about leave — 75 percent of voters said they would support a national paid family and medical leave policy that covers all workers.

While many employers are catching up to this trend, there’s still a real discrepancy in how many workers want the benefit and how many actually have access to it. According to the same MetLife survey, 80 percent of employees were interested in paid leave, but only 57 percent of their employers offered any kind of leave, paid or otherwise. 

3. Remote work flexibility.

The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly changed the way we work, with many offices adapting to a hybrid strategy, a balance between working in person and working from home. For some, though, the option to work from home has become essential for various reasons, with nearly half of the employees in a recent PWC report responding that they would want to work remotely three days a week or more. 

And the research shows that offering more flexibility doesn’t equate to a loss in productivity — a survey tracking more than 30,000 workers found that 6 in 10 reported being more productive working from home than they expected.

4. Mental health support.

Feelings of burnout and depression are on the rise, and employees are looking to their employers to help. According to MetLife, 37 percent of employees polled felt stressed while working more than half the time. Another 34 percent felt burned out while working more than half the time and 22 percent felt depressed while working more than half the time — all major increases from the previous year. 

Burnout can lead to higher employee turnover, low productivity and increased absenteeism at work. Consider adding accessible mental health benefits to your health insurance plan and strive for an office culture that rewards employees who ask for help. These strategies can help combat this upward trend and help your workers both feel better and work better.

5. Help with student loan repayment.

Millennials, who make up the largest chunk of the current workforce, have more student loan debt than any other generation. As such, adding student loan repayment to your benefits packages can help you attract and retain employees. 

Plus, there’s more of an incentive than ever to consider this benefit in 2022: last year, Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, allowing employers to make tax-free contributions of up to $5,250 a year to their employees’ student debt, without the payments being included in the employees’ taxable income. This was originally included in the pandemic-related CARES Act but has been granted an extension through the end of 2025 with many hoping the change will become permanent. 

If you want to learn more about how Best Money Moves can bring financial wellness to your company, download our whitepapers.