recession Archives

3 Ways to Prepare Your Employees for a 2023 Recession

by Elif Geris | Feb 8, 2023 | Blog

3 ways to prepare your employees for a 2023 recession . Financial experts predict a possible 2023 recession. Here are 3 key strategies to consider to help employees through a recession.

Economists say there is a 60/40 chance that the US will face a recession in 2023, according to a survey conducted by the Wall Street Journal. This news follows a year where significant inflation and climbing interest rates challenged employee financial confidence.

Employers need to equip their staff with the right resources if they hope to remain productive amid a large scale financial downturn. Here are three ways to prepare your employees for a 2023 recession.

1. Address the challenges of a 2023 recession head-on with accessible financial wellness tools.

Financial wellness tools are always a good investment for you team, but they’re never more important than during periods of economic upheaval. Over 62% of employees are stressed about their finances, according to The Bank of America 12th Annual Workplace Benefits Report. What’s more, 80% of employees worry about inflation and 71% of those feel that their wages are not on track to keep up with the cost of living.

With a 2023 recession on the horizon, it’s time to address employee financial needs head-on. In the same Bank of America study, research found a significant link between employer involvement in financial wellness and employee attrition. A whopping ninety-seven percent of employers report feeling responsible for their employee’s financial wellness. What’s more, 84% of employers felt that offering financial wellness tools helped with retention. With this in mind, it’s hardly a surprise that financial wellness is shaping up to be one of the top benefits of 2023.

2. Invest in benefits with a DEI edge.

Research suggests that workplaces who prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion efforts tend to fare better during times of upheaval. Data collected by AARP international and Great Place to Work, found that diverse organizations performed nearly four times better than their competitors who employed less diverse teams, during the 2008 recession.

Financial wellness solutions are a key benefit when thinking about DEI. All employees, regardless of their backgrounds, have to deal with financial matters in some capacity. Moreover, minority employees often find themselves the most in need of financial wellness support. White families have an average eight times the wealth of black families, and five times the wealth of hispanic families, according to 2020 research from the federal reserve. Female employees are also disproportionately affected by financial stress compared to their male colleagues. Data from the Financial Health Network found that the pandemic only served to widen this gap.

Addressing these disparities among your team starts with making sure everyone has access to the same financial tools, resources and education to address their individual needs. Financial solutions can can also be a great way to retain and attract new, diverse talent as 4 out of 5 employees said they would prefer benefits over a pay increase, per Human Resources Director.

3. Promote work-life balance and build trust in your team — wherever they work.

If employees are to face a 2023 recession, work-life support from employers will become more important than ever. A 2021 survey conducted by Ernst & Young Global recorded that 54% of respondents worldwide said they might leave their jobs without flexibility in the post-pandemic era. And the reason why often comes down to a matter of money.

For many families, tough financial times means making hard decisions about inflexible expenses like health or childcare. Juggling personal responsibilities is a big part of employees’ budgeting: for some working parents, a recession could mean determining if they can afford to keep sending a child to daycare during the workweek.

Knowing that their companies trust them to do their jobs well remotely can have a huge impact on employee retention and attracting new employees. When surveyed by Harris Poll, seventy-six percent of workers cited a desire for their employers to implement remote work some or all of the time.

Be prepared for a 2023 recession with financial wellness tools from Best Money Moves.

Best Money Moves is a mobile-first financial wellness solution designed to help dial down employees’ most top-of-mind financial stresses. As a comprehensive financial well-being solution, Best Money Moves offers 1:1 money coaching, budgeting tools and other resources to improve employee financial wellbeing. Our AI platform, with a human-centered design, is easy to use and fit for employees of any age, right from their mobile phones.

Whether it be college planning or securing a mortgage, Best Money Moves can guide employees through the most difficult financial times and topics. Our dedicated resources, partner offerings and 700+ article library make Best Money Moves a leading benefit in bettering employee financial wellness.

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.

As Recession Looms, Financial Wellness Is The Future

by ryanwangman | Dec 20, 2018 | Blog

After years of American economic growth in the wake of the 2008 housing market crash, experts are increasingly worried that another downturn looms on the horizon. According to a recent CNBC Fed survey, there is a 23 percent chance of a recession in the next 12 months, the highest mark at any point in the Trump presidency and higher than the 19 percent long-run average for the 7-year-old survey.

For the modern U.S. household, there are real causes for alarm.

The Federal Reserve Bank’s latest Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households found that while economic well-being has generally improved over the past five years, 40 percent of U.S. households still say they cannot cover a $400 emergency expense. Additionally, roughly 78 percent of U.S. workers live paycheck to paycheck, according to a 2017 CareerBuilder survey, including one in 10 workers earning at least $100,000 per year.

Twenty-seven percent of workers globally report severe stress, anxiety or depression over the past two years due to their financial situation, with worsening financial well-being diminishing employee productivity, engagement, and health.

“It’s pretty sobering. People are living well beyond their means,” said Dr. Bruce Sherman, Medical Director for Population Health Management, Conduent HR Services. And for employers, “there is a direct cost and an indirect cost directly related to financial stress: lost productivity, worker turnover, performance, absenteeism and presenteeism. But at least half the costs are associated with poor health.”

The last recession decimated financial security for many employees, with an unemployment rate that peaked at about 10 percent and nearly matched a 1981-82 postwar high. At one point at the beginning of the economic recovery, there were seven people looking for work per every job opening that existed.

Without the right preparation, a repeat scenario could spell disaster for American workers unaware of how to effectively manage and maximize their financial wellbeing. In the case of a life-altering event like the loss of a job, the foreclosure of a home or the forced liquidation of important assets, unsuspecting employees can often be forced to handle serious fiscal situations with long-lasting consequences — and have little to no reliable, unbiased information on which to base their decisions.

As an employer, this is where you can make a difference, easing the financial stress of your employees while increasing productivity and retention and reducing workplace accidents.

In today’s increasingly divisive world there aren’t a lot of things everyone can agree on, but the effectiveness of financial wellness programs seems to be the exception to the rule for employers and employees. A recent Bank of America study found that over 90 percent of employees who’ve participated in workplace financial wellness programs say they’ve been effective, and 95 percent of employers who offer them say that their programs have helped the company to reach its goals.

Employers who have offered them have seen greater employee satisfaction, less employee turnover, improvement in employee productivity and potentially lower healthcare costs for the company.

By giving your staffers the tools they need to take control of their financial lives, not only are you providing a benefit that will boost your bottom line, you’re arming your employees with the knowledge they need to make the best possible decisions when the stakes are the highest.

Best Money Moves is a mobile-first financial wellness program. It 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.

Employers can view reports that provide a statistical look at usage, including: unique visitors; minutes online per visit; an overview of those who have measured stress; what categories of stress they’re measuring; money coach sessions; and, a snapshot of the overall financial health of employees. No individual data can be accessed which ensures employee privacy while allowing employers to have an overall understanding of their employees’ financial health.

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.