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5 Financial Steps to Support Employees in 2022

by Sam Johnson | Oct 7, 2021 | Blog

5 financial steps to support employees in 2022. Consider these 5 suggestions for bringing financial wellness to your workforce in 2022, as well as why these steps are good for employers as well as employees.

According to a 2021 Capital One CreditWise survey, 73 percent of Americans rank their finances as the most significant source of stress in their life. And stress has real life implications: Eighty percent of US employees spend 12-20 hours per month dealing with financial concerns at work according to the IFEBP (International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans). Financial wellness can help alleviate that stress and lead to more focused employees.

Here are five steps to increasing employee financial wellness for 2022.

1. Help your employees plan for the future

According to a study by EBRI and Greenwald Research, about two in three employees expressed concern about their financial future. There are programs employers can offer such as a rainy day savings account program that can help ease these issues. Utilizing these programs is also a good way to signal to employees that their financial wellness is a priority. Among those polled, 72 percent of workers who reported facing increased financial setbacks during the pandemic said they would be more attracted to another company that cared more about financial well-being than their current employer.

2. Instruct your employees on how to use your current financial benefits

A recent survey by Voya financial found that 35% of employees do not fully understand the benefit programs in which they were enrolled. This does not mean that employees are discouraged from enrolling in these programs or learning more about their finances. The same study found that around two-thirds of employees want their employer to help them better understand their employee benefits. Talking about financial well-being and asking for help with their financial wellness can be daunting for many employees. Employers should take a proactive approach to alert their employees to available benefits.

3. Alleviate your employee’s stress with debt reduction programs

The average American household has $15,706 in credit card debt and the average federal student loan debt is $36,510 per borrower. Debt can be a burden that contributes to long-term stress as well as mental health strain. Employer-sponsored student loan relief programs have grown increasingly popular among workforces. Many potential employees, especially those just entering the workforce, feel burdened by their student debt. Offering these programs is a great way for an employer to stand out to potential new hires.

4. Be sure your retirement strategy is still going strong

According to a study conducted by the Department of Labor, only 40% of Americans have calculated the amount they need to save for retirement. The best time for employees to start saving is right now. Employers can emphasize this by using 401(k) or other retirement plans. The most common retirement plan is the 401(k) match where the employer grants a certain amount to the plan based on how much the employee contributes. Employers that utilize these plans are desirable to potential new hires. According to a survey by Willis Towers Watson, 51% percent of employees joined their current employer primarily because they offered a retirement plan.

5. Utilize financial wellness benefit programs

A good way to aid your employees in minimizing the stress associated with finance is by instituting financial wellness programs or benefits. There are a wide variety of these programs from financial counseling sessions to employer matching programs. Employees will appreciate the access to financial education as over 50% of financially-stressed employees are afraid to ask for help with their finances according to Pwc. The cost of these programs is manageable for most employers and is often well worth the additional productivity seen from workers who use the benefits.

There are many benefits to financial education including being prepared to tackle debt, making smarter decisions with how to spend money and a less stressful 2022.

Whether your employees need help saving money, paying their bills, raising their credit scores or getting ready for retirement, Best Money Moves is there to support them every step of the way with best-in-class products, services and benefits tailored to suit your workforce needs. Best Money Moves is a human-centered and individualized approach to financial wellbeing. The comprehensive and user-friendly platform provides a plethora of financial resources and educational tools. Give your employees the very best financial wellness experience. Reach out for a demo today!

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

4 Reasons to Reskill Your Workforce

by AllyMauch | Sep 21, 2021 | Blog

4 reasons to reskill your workforce. Reskilling has long been associated with training employees who are about to leave the company, but data continues to show strong benefits for offering reskill opportunities for all workers.

Reskilling helps employees develop new skills beyond the scope of their current jobs. Often, reskilling programs are reserved for employees who will be laid off. Data, however, suggests that reskilling all employees can help improve retention, lower hiring costs, boost team morale and more.

In February 2020, McKinsey conducted a survey in which 87 percent of executives felt they were experiencing skill gaps in the workforce or expected them within a few years. The COVID-19 pandemic has also brought reskilling to the forefront, as work from home technology and other new challenges in the workforce have widened skill gaps even further.

So why should you prioritize reskilling for all employees — not just those preparing to leave the company? Here are four key reasons to consider:

1. Retention.

One of the most compelling reasons to reskill is that it can improve your employee retention rates, thus reducing the time, money and effort you spend on hiring and training new employees. Investing in employees’ skills shows them you care about their development and increases their desire to remain on at the company — an IBM study found that new employees are 42 percent more likely to stay if they are receiving the training they need to do their jobs properly.

2. Training and hiring costs.

Going hand-in-hand with retention rates, reskilling your workforce can lower your training and hiring costs. If you’re reskilling your employees, when a new position pops up you can hire someone internally by teaching them the responsibilities of the role, rather than having to look outside the company. Promoting internal mobility is also attractive to employees who want to see that their employer is dedicated to helping them grow and improve.

3. New talent.

Committing to reskilling can also help attract new, top talent in an increasingly competitive job landscape. According to a Gallup poll, 87 percent of millennials — who make up the majority of the workforce — said that professional development is very important to them in a job. Maintaining those aforementioned low retention rates can also work in your favor for attracting talent, as it shows potential new hires that employees want to stay on at the company and suggests a positive work culture.

4. Employee morale.

Boosting company morale is an essential reason to consider reskilling. In addition to showing employees that you care and are invested in them, reskilling can improve employee confidence and, as a result, make them more committed to their jobs and to producing high-quality work. Per one 2020 study, 80 percent of employees said their confidence improved from reskilling training. Reskilling also gives employees a greater sense of job security, because it offers them the opportunity to learn skills outside of their role, and protects them in case their current position is eliminated.

Once you’ve decided to reskill your employees and identified any glaring skills gaps within your company, the process can take on a variety of forms, from focusing on digital skills to creating a job shadowing program to facilitate peer learning. Provide your team members with encouragement to grow and offer them the tools to facilitate that development.

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

3 Ways to Reduce Employee Burnout in 2021

by LizStevens | Dec 16, 2020 | Blog

3 ways to reduce employee burnout in 2021. How to spot the symptoms of employee burnout and minimize its impact on your business.

An alarming 76 percent of U.S. employees are currently experiencing burnout, according to new research by Spring Health.

“The events of 2020 put a tremendous amount of pressure on U.S. employees — especially those who are raising children or taking care of elderly loved ones,” said Dr. Millard Brown, senior vice president of Medical Affairs at Spring Health. “Burnout is extremely costly for organizations, so it’s imperative that leaders take steps now to reduce and manage burnout symptoms for their workforce.”

Employers can minimize the impact of employee burnout by spotting symptoms early and making changes in workplace culture or employee benefits offerings.

3 Ways to Reduce Employee Burnout in 2021

Spotting the Symptoms of Employee Burnout

The first step to reducing employee burnout is spotting the primary symptoms including exhaustion, feeling negative, cynical or detached from work, reduced productivity and poor work performance. Employee burnout is often reached after an extended period of high stress.

“Employee burnout can present on a spectrum,” said Dr. Brown. “At its earliest stages, burnout can be mobilized more easily. Whether it’s offering more flexible work schedules for caretakers or rebalancing workloads that have been skewed by layoffs, employers have a lot of opportunities to support their team members without sacrificing larger organizational goals. Once an employee reaches the complete burnout stage, though, recovery can become a challenging and long-term process that significantly disrupts both the employee’s life and the organization’s efficacy.”

Making Changes to Workplace Culture to Reduce Employee Burnout

Almost a third of employees experiencing burnout say that increased responsibilities at work contributed to their burnout and that reducing the number of hours spent working would help them reduce or avoid burnout altogether. Over 25 percent of employees say having a supportive and understanding manager at work would also help them to reduce and avoid burnout.

Training supervisors to lead with empathy, spot the signs of burnout and respond effectively by supporting the employee and working to find reasonable solutions can make a huge impact in reducing employee burnout.

Making Changes to Employee Benefits to Reduce Employee Burnout

Nearly 1 in 4 U.S. employees believe that better mental health-related policies at work would help them avoid or reduce burnout. Mental health benefits can help employees reduce stress and build emotional resiliency that can help them through times of crisis, like the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic uncertainty that followed.

Another 30 percent of workers said receiving more paid time off from their employer would assist them in avoiding or reducing burnout. Paid time off allows employees to take time off when they need it, for whatever reason, and being able to split paid time off between vacation days, sick time and mental health days could help employees reduce and avoid burnout.

Employers who want to reduce the negative impact of employee burnout and get back to the business at hand should train supervisors to spot the symptoms and react accordingly by reassessing workloads and looking to changes to office culture or benefits offerings that could be advantageous.

Top 10 Reasons Why Employees Leave Their Jobs in 2021

by LizStevens | Dec 2, 2020 | Blog

Top 10 reasons why employees leave their jobs in 2021. They’re most likely to leave when they don’t feel valued, have unreasonable workloads or when opportunities for advancement are scarce.

Nearly a quarter of employees voluntarily left their jobs in the past year.

Job satisfaction plummeted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly 30 percent of employees are dissatisfied with their jobs, up from just 7.4 percent in 2019, according to research by iHire. Less than 20 percent of employees consider themselves to be very satisfied at work these days.

iHire asked employees to rank factors that led them to leave their jobs as well as what their recent employer could have done to keep them aboard.

Top 10 Reasons Why Employees Leave Their Jobs in 2021

These are the top 10 reasons why employees leave their jobs:

Unsatisfactory salary or pay (15.8 percent)
Stress or an unmanageable workload (11.7 percent)
Few growth or advancement opportunities (11.5 percent)
Employer’s values not aligning with their own (7.0 percent).
Interest in a different industry or career path (6.7 percent)
Poor work/life balance (6.5 percent)
Unsatisfactory benefits (3.8 percent)
Lack of employee recognition (2.9 percent)
Concerns about their employer’s ability to address health and safety concerns in the wake of COVID-19 (2.3 percent)
No options for remote work (1.3 percent)

iHire gave employees the option to select “Other” as a reason for leaving their job and the 15.7 percent of employees who selected it were asked to elaborate. Popular responses included:

Poor relationships with managers and coworkers
Relocation
Toxic work environment
Long commute
Retirement
Disorganized management teams
Not enough hours
Unreasonable expectations
Not enough training
Not using skills to one’s potential
Company longevity/stability
COVID-19 concerns in general

Employees who feel like they are undervalued and overworked are most likely to leave their jobs, but opportunities for advancement, company values employees can get behind and robust benefits offerings are just as important to employee retention and job satisfaction.

What Employers Could Do to Get Employees to Stay

These are the top 10 reasons employees would reconsider accepting a new job offer and stay with their current or most recent employer:

Raise or bonus (50 percent)
Healthier work/life balance (25.7 percent)
Clear growth or advancement opportunities (25.4 percent)
Better benefits package (22 percent)
Meaningful employee recognition (19.8 percent)
Professional development opportunities (15.2 percent)
Promotion (12 percent)
Remote work (11.5 percent)
Regular performance feedback (8.1 percent)
Student loan repayment assistance (4.8 percent)

Once again the emphasis is on job compensation, manageable workloads, clear paths for advancement, but also opportunities for professional development, better employee benefits and flexibility.

Employers who are prioritizing retention in the new year should review their operations to see which areas they’re excelling in and where they can build out processes and programs to better retain employees.

Top HR Challenges in 2021 and How to Overcome Them

by LizStevens | Oct 20, 2020 | Blog

Top HR challenges in 2021 and how to overcome them. The most pressing issues in human resource management and what organizations can do about them.

Employers made difficult decisions to navigate COVID-19 in 2020 but it’s unclear what the lasting impact of those changes will be.

A new report by Lattice, The State of People Strategy: The New World of Work, asked HR leaders what their most crucial initiatives are for the 12 months ahead and what challenges they’re most concerned about.

Top HR Challenges in 2021 and How to Overcome Them

HR leaders said their most important initiatives in the next 12 months are:

48 percent said employee engagement
46 percent said training and enabling managers
44 percent said diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) programs
37 percent said learning and development
33 percent said performance management

Most of these initiatives have to do with adapting procedures and processes established to limit the risk of COVID-19 while remaining operational, with the exception of DE&I programs which have become an organizational priority for many companies after the events of this year underscored the pervasiveness of systemic racism and inequality.

The top challenges HR teams face are:

58 percent said emotional exhaustion (for themselves or their team members)
54 percent said an overwhelming number of projects and responsibilities
51 percent said employee morale/retention
43 percent said budget constraints
29 percent said low perceived value of HR’s worth in an organization

Health and wellness programs can help HR teams overcome their challenges in 2021, if they can find the right mix of benefits within their budget constraints. Benefits that help employees improve aspects of their overall health, like mental health benefits and financial wellness programs, can build resilience and help employees both manage and avoid exhaustion and burnout.

Communication is going to be critical to organizational success next year, especially as many workplaces plan to continue working remotely indefinitely. Finding the right balance between professional check-ins where supervisors touch base with employees’ workloads, productivity and engagement are going to be just as important as personal check-ins where supervisors ask employees how they’re doing with everything going on and encourage them to ask for support when they need it.

The businesses that are most adaptive and communicative stand to come out of 2021 on top. Effective HR teams focused on their most important initiatives and highly aware of the challenges they’ll face will help their organizations beat their business goals in the new year.

5 Financial Steps to Support Employees in 2022

1. Help your employees plan for the future

2. Instruct your employees on how to use your current financial benefits

3. Alleviate your employee’s stress with debt reduction programs

4. Be sure your retirement strategy is still going strong

5. Utilize financial wellness benefit programs

4 Reasons to Reskill Your Workforce

1. Retention.

2. Training and hiring costs.

3. New talent.

4. Employee morale.

3 Ways to Reduce Employee Burnout in 2021

3 Ways to Reduce Employee Burnout in 2021

Spotting the Symptoms of Employee Burnout

Making Changes to Workplace Culture to Reduce Employee Burnout

Making Changes to Employee Benefits to Reduce Employee Burnout

More on Topics Related to Employee Health and Wellness

Top 10 Reasons Why Employees Leave Their Jobs in 2021

Top 10 Reasons Why Employees Leave Their Jobs in 2021

What Employers Could Do to Get Employees to Stay

More on Topics Related to Top 10 Reasons Why Employees Leave Their Jobs in 2021

Top HR Challenges in 2021 and How to Overcome Them

Top HR Challenges in 2021 and How to Overcome Them

More on Topics Related to Top HR Challenges in 2021 and How to Overcome Them

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