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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

What’s Wrong With Wellness Program Incentives?

What’s Wrong With Wellness Program Incentives?

by | Dec 4, 2018 | Blog

What’s wrong with wellness program incentives? ROI isn’t proven, employees feel forced into participation, and worse, wellness programs can increase weight-based discrimination and stigma in the workplace, which results in increased obesity and decreased well-being.

Workplace wellness programs have long been criticized as ineffective and lacking ROI, but financial incentives for wellness program participation are even more controversial.

Depending on what the financial incentive is, failing to participate could cost an employee hundreds or thousands of dollars. It then becomes a question of whether participation is truly voluntary, or if employees are being coerced.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) set a limit for what employers could offer employees to join in on wellness programs in 2016 (30 percent of an employee’s health insurance costs). Earlier this year, a judge vacated that arbitrary limit and the EEOC said it would not produce a new number until 2021.

That means there aren’t specific guidelines for employers putting together next year’s wellness benefits to follow. It’s worth considering whether incentivizing program participation is a good idea or just a waste of money.

New research from Frontiers in Psychology found wellness programs can actually lead to increased obesity and decreased well-being. Programs that put the responsibility on employees made them believe their weight is blameworthy. It led to increased weight-based discrimination and stigma in the workplace, a consequence surely no employer intended.

Wellness programs framed from an organizational standpoint were able to avoid increased stigma. What does that look like? An employer providing healthy snacks, standing desks, or offering reimbursements for gym memberships gives employees opportunities to improve their health without shaming them, versus ‘biggest loser’ challenges that are sure to make employees more self-conscious and could fuel disordered eating habits.

Employers look to wellness programs to reduce astronomical healthcare costs and take back some of the $530 billion that poor employee health costs in lost productivity from nearly 1.4 billion days of missed work each year. However, most employers now realize offering wellness programs isn’t enough. Employee engagement with wellness benefits is low, which is why providing a financial incentive for participation seems like a great idea (and in some cases, it still can be).

Nearly 20 percent of employees are either unaware of or don’t understand how to use the wellness benefits their employer offers. Clear benefits communication is vital to program success, and a process to improve before offering financial incentives for participation. Employees need to know what’s being offered, and more importantly how it works and who to contact if they have questions.

Unless conflicting research emerges proving significant ROI for employers who provide wellness benefits initiatives, employers are better off spending those funds elsewhere. A focus on improving benefits communication and creating a culture that encourages healthy habits has the potential to boost job satisfaction, productivity and reduce employer healthcare costs. Organizational and procedural changes might require some effort, but they’re low-cost solutions to the issue of benefits engagement.

Employee Benefits Success is All About Communication

Employee Benefits Success is All About Communication

by | Oct 16, 2018 | Blog

Employee benefits success is all about communication. A third of compensation costs go towards employee benefits and some employees would forgo a raise for better work-life balance or better healthcare benefits, but almost half of employees don’t even understand the benefits their employer already offers.

Benefits account for more than 30 percent of total employee compensation, but that doesn’t mean employees use them. Nearly half don’t understand all the benefits their organization offers, according to a report from Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).

Even though they don’t have a good grasp on their current benefits, more than 40 percent of employees would forgo a raise in favor of work-life balance benefits and almost 20 percent would accept lower pay for better healthcare coverage.

More than 80 percent of employees have paid vacation time and over 70 percent have paid sick leave. Less than half of organizations offer paid maternity leave and only a quarter offer paid paternity leave. Recently large organizations have overhauled their benefits for parents, like Pinterest, whose benefits now include four months off for mothers or fathers, one-on-one classes with a parenting coach and online classes if children have learning or developmental disabilities. In the next few years, organizations offering maternity leave are likely to increase and there’s a chance companies that offer paternity leave might see a significant spike too.

Benefits that were nonexistent in 2013 (at least in terms of EBRI’s report) like health savings accounts and accident insurance are now offered by more than 15 percent of organizations. Student loan assistance is a trend EBRI started measuring this year and almost 15 percent of employees said their employer provides student loan debt relief/repayment assistance. The IRS recently ruled that a company could contribute to an employee’s 401(k) based on student loan payments, so employees can pay down their student loan debt and save for retirement at the same time with employer contributions. Employers are also helping employees continue their education as more companies partner with institutions to offer employees free college tuition.

Most employees predict weakening benefits offerings in the next three years, but everything I’ve seen in benefits trends this year points to stronger benefits offerings on the horizon. However, recently companies like Walgreens have started to slash benefits in order to raise overall wages. It’s a concerning trend to keep an eye on in the years to come.

Which Basic Need Are Your Employees Struggling to Afford?

Which Basic Need Are Your Employees Struggling to Afford?

by | Sep 11, 2018 | Blog

Millions of Americans faced financial hardships in 2017 and are likely still struggling to afford basic needs, so which one are your employees struggling with?

Nearly 40 percent of Americans had trouble meeting at least one basic need (food, healthcare, housing, or utilities) last year, according to a recent study from the Urban Institute. This echoes an earlier report from the Federal Reserve that showed more than 25 percent of Americans skipped needed medical care in 2017 because they couldn’t afford it.

Urban Institute’s study found more than 20 percent of respondents experienced two or more financial hardships in 2017 and close to 15 percent experienced at least three. It’s not just families below the federal poverty level experiencing financial hardships either. Roughly 20 percent of people whose household income was four times the federal poverty level still struggled to meet the basics.

Almost 20 percent of Americans had trouble getting medical care or paying medical bills in 2017. More than 10 percent missed a utility bill, rent or mortgage payments. Over 20 percent did not have reliable access to a sufficient amount of affordable and nutritious food, making food insecurity the top financial hardship Americans faced.

Food insecurity is an issue that reaches outside of Urban Institute’s scope. Their “Well-Being and Basic Needs Survey” extends to adults aged 18-64 but older Americans struggle with food insecurity as well. It’s estimated that there are 8 to 10 million people over age 65 lacking consistent access to enough food for an active healthy life.

“Older adults who are chronically food insecure suffer other health problems such as low muscle mass, increased fatigue, impaired cognition and increased hypertension. In turn, this can lead to increased risk for falls, limit mobility, reduce ability for self-care, and ultimately force a move into institutional care,” says Liz Seegert, Association of Health Care Journalists’ topic editor on aging.

Employers should be concerned that some of their employees deal with food insecurity on a day-to-day basis. Hunger affects their ability to focus and can cause drastic shifts in mood. There’s also a host of health issues linked to food insecurity that can cause employees to miss more days at work or develop a chronic health issue. Something as simple as providing healthy snacks or occasional staff lunches for employees can make a huge difference in their performance.

10 Quick Highlights from SHRM’s 2018 Benefits Report

10 Quick Highlights from SHRM’s 2018 Benefits Report

by | 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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.”
  3. 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?
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.