More employers accept that employee financial stress isn’t an individual employee issue – it’s a business problem that drives higher turnover, absenteeism, and healthcare costs. Despite the sheer volume of traditional financial wellness and point solutions on the market, finding those that will address the needs of the 70% of employees who are not financially healthy and deliver ROI is challenging.
Ask these seven core questions as you evaluate financial benefits to identify those that can truly support all of your employees’ financial needs and drive measurable results for your organization.
1. What support is available for financially unhealthy employees?
Many financial wellness solutions focus on budgeting, investing, planning, and financial education. These may be helpful for the 30% of your employees who are financially healthy, but they won’t address the needs of most of your employees – the 70% who are financially unhealthy and living paycheck paycheck.
Ask potential vendors:
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What solutions do you offer to address needs such as lack of savings or assets, past-due bills or debt in collections, poor credit scores, and high-interest debt?
- How do you help employees facing money emergencies?
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How do you help employees improve their financial health by taking steps such as building emergency savings funds, managing debt, and improving credit scores?
2. Is the solution unbiased?
Some vendors promote financial products—such as early wage access or loans — because they profit when employees use them. Even seemingly harmless offerings, like student loan benefits, can create conflicts of interest if the provider benefits financially.
Ask potential vendors:
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Do you profit when employees use specific financial products you offer?
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Are your financial experts incentivized to sell specific products or advise employees to take specific actions without considering their holistic financial situation?
3. Does it make it easy for employees to take action?
Most employees won’t change their behavior based on self-serve financial education – if they even take the time to access it. That’s why financial education alone only improves financial behavior by 0.1% – and even less among lower-income populations.
Likewise, employees who connect with a CFP-led benefit such as financial planning may still be left feeling overwhelmed or unequipped to take the next steps that could lead to an improved financial situation.
Ask potential vendors:
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How do you make it easy for all employees to take actions that improve their situation?
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How do you remove barriers to accessing financial help?
4. How does the solution approach financial crises and urgent needs?
Employees who are experiencing a financial crisis such as how to avoid eviction or keep the lights on aren’t thinking about how to invest or prepare for retirement. In addition, they may be under a great deal of stress, have mental health issues, and/or be in the midst of a trauma such as domestic violence, all of which can cloud their ability to make decisions.
Many traditional financial wellness programs tout access to Certified Financial Planners (CFPs)—but they are not necessarily trained to support those who are in severe distress. Employees in financial crisis need empathetic, non-judgmental experts who are specifically trained to meet these employees where they are to establish the trust needed to identify the full scope of financially sick employees’ unique challenges and offer patience, support, encouragement and a sense of hope in the employee that things can get better.
Ask potential vendors:
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What types of resources and solutions can you offer employees who have urgent needs and are in a crisis?
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Are your financial experts trained in behavioral science and crisis support?
5. Does it integrate with other benefits?
Financial health is part of overall employee wellbeing; it can’t be seen as separate from healthcare or mental wellness. A strong financial health solution should help employees leverage all available resources, including other benefits you offer.
Ask potential vendors:
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Do you help employees navigate to their other benefits such as an EAP or legal aid, when relevant?
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How does your program integrate with other benefits such as retirement solutions, student loan benefits, or hardship funds?
6. How is engagement defined and measured?
A financial health benefit isn’t effective if employees don’t use it. However, engagement should be measured based on real conversations with financial experts and meaningful actions the employee takes toward financial progress – not passive activity like clicks on a financial education website or webinar attendance.
Ask potential vendors:
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How do you track and report actions that lead to financial improvements?
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Can you provide measurable data on improved financial health?
7. How is ROI measured?
Financial stress costs employers in turnover, absenteeism, and healthcare expenses. A financial health benefit should reduce these business costs while improving employee financial health.
Ask potential vendors:
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Can you demonstrate how your solution reduces issues such as turnover and absenteeism?
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Do you provide reporting on financial health improvements and ROI?
What makes Brightside Financial Care different?
We created Financial Care, a new category in employee benefits, because there were no solutions that helped the 70% of employees who are not financially healthy. Without support for their unique needs, poor financial health persists and continues to cost employees and employers.
We know Financial Care works because we measure our impact at Amazon and other Fortune 500 customers and see improvements such as:
- 50% of employees start saving from each paycheck, on average
- $1,200 of after-tax income (ATI)put back into the pocket of each household that works with Brightside, on average
- Employees report lower financial stress, after their first engagement with Brightside
Our data-driven approach also delivers business results, including:
- 41% reduction in turnover, on average
- 36+ more hours worked per employee, per year
Click here to learn more about how Brightside can improve the financial health of your frontline workforce – and deliver ROI for your company.
