If you’re like most benefits leaders who responded to Aon’s 2024 Health Survey, your top priority in 2024 has been managing healthcare costs, followed by investing in benefits that attract and retain employees, and support workforce health and wellbeing. Despite the inherent difficulty in that balancing act, it will soon become more challenging. Over the next four years, Aon predicts that “healthcare will consume an increasing share of total rewards budgets.”
One way to offset this pressure? Invest in financial health benefits that simultaneously lower healthcare costs and help employees show up to work as their best selves.
Here are three ways to ensure every dollar you spend on employee financial health delivers maximum value for your organization and its employees.
1. Prioritize financial benefits that support whole-person care
Employees’ physical, mental, and financial health are all interconnected; investing in financial benefits that can positively influence all those areas will deliver more impactful results. Financial health is a primary social determinant of health and financial stress influences several physical and mental health conditions, including hypertension, anxiety, and depression. One WTW study revealed that employees with high financial stress cost a Fortune 50 employer an additional $1,100 per employee in annual healthcare costs compared to employees with low financial stress. Ultimately, this added $22 million to the organization’s healthcare costs.
Financial health benefits that use a holistic approach can address employees’ stated financial concerns along with the root causes of their challenges. In many cases, poor financial health involves complex circumstances such as medical conditions, mental health issues, domestic violence, divorce, death of a loved one, and caregiving responsibilities.
Financial benefits that can identify and recognize the presence of these challenges and connect employees with other relevant benefits (such as an EAP or a company hardship fund) ensure that other aspects of employees’ lives that contribute to healthcare costs are also addressed, resulting in improved outcomes.
2. Address invisible illnesses through proactive support
As employers seek ways to control rising healthcare costs, more are focusing on benefits that can recognize and address invisible illnesses. These conditions aren’t immediately apparent, but they impact employee productivity and wellbeing, and drive healthcare costs that are two to three times higher than medical illness alone.
Financial stress is one such invisible burden that can manifest in various ways and lead to absenteeism, lost productivity, and distraction that compromises decision-making and workplace safety.
Benefits that include personalized support from an empathetic and non-judgmental person who uses proven behavioral science techniques to establish trust and have honest conversations with employees help reduce financial stress and prevent invisible illnesses associated with it from escalating. This approach is part of our Financial Care model – and it works. Once employees use Brightside, 90% report feeling less financial stress.
3. Emphasize value-based benefits
As cost pressures mount, employers cannot afford to rely on passive self-serve financial education or CFP-focused financial planning and retirement solutions that are relevant only to a small portion of financially healthy employees. That’s why innovative employers are prioritizing solutions that offer clear ROI and demonstrable value. For example, by offering Financial Care to frontline employees:
- Amazon has seen $3 of value delivered to the employee for every $1 it spends on the benefit.
- A Fortune 10 employer saw a 76% reduction in turnover among employees who used Brightside, as well as a decrease in the number of employees taking 401 (k) hardship withdrawals.
On average, Brightside also puts $1,200 back into the pockets of employees who engage with their benefit, all by using a model centered on personalized support and real solutions that address all financial needs including money emergencies, and helping employees find money, start saving for emergencies, and manage debt, so they can improve their financial health and establish financial resilience. As a result, employers see reduced absenteeism, improved productivity, and lower healthcare costs.
To learn more about how including Brightside Financial Care in your benefits package ensures you’re providing a truly comprehensive, value-driven approach that addresses employee financial wellbeing and helps you manage healthcare costs, click here.
