Other than health, personal finances has seen the single largest impact due to the pandemic.. If you ask most people these days about financial wellness they talk about making it through the pandemic, not about saving for retirement like everyone use to in the not too distant past.
In recent surveys, over 90% of employees say they have faced a serious personal financial issue in the past two years. Causes include either difficulty in reducing debt, maintaining a household budget or building savings.
What the pandemic has done is expose and catalyze the biggest challenge employees have been facing for a long time. There is a severe "financial knowledge gap" when it comes to employees really understanding how to best manage their own money.
According to recent studies, only 50% of those asked basic financial knowledge questions are able to provide the correct answers. Over half of those asked also showed “an extremely low level of financial literacy,” according to the recent research. It all really comes down to employees not just being unaware, but also not knowing where to look.
Which is perhaps why employees are now increasingly turning to their employers for greater support with financial wellness. Why not look to the where your money is coming from in the first place for help in understanding how to manage it. Not so ironically this fit actually makes sense.
Employers will want their employees to substantially improve their financial wellness because the research also shows that when an employee is financially self-sufficient their productivity very dramatically increases.
Employees aren't messing around when it comes to getting this financial help, so much so that they’re willing to give up vacation time to get it. Roughly 70% of employees asked in several studies say that they would prioritize financial wellness benefits above an extra time off.
In order to accomplish this feat, employers will need to look to third-party financial wellness companies like Benefi that can provide employees with both financial education and functional tools and services to help them better manage their own money, get out of debt or improve their credit rating.
The Benefi Financial Wellness Platform is the 1st FREE employer program that empowers an entire workforce to become financially stable and aware. It's comprised of 3 primary components of support:
A Better Way to Borrow - Affordable loan rates are now available to employees directly through Benefi. If they need to pay off credit cards or payday loans or simply need extra finances for an emergency they now have a better borrowing option. The loan repayments are deducted straight from a paycheque so there's never a worry about missing a payment.
A Better Way To Learn - Financial wellness starts with knowledge. Benefi’s education offerings will help employees become more aware of their overall financial wellness and ensure they’re able to better plan for a stable and successful financial future.
A Better Way To Save - With Benefi employees will be able to automatically direct a percentage of their pay cheque to a savings or investment product specifically designed to meet their important financial goals and aspirations.
Currently very few organizations offer access to financial wellness as a benefit. This is destined to change however as expanded benefit offerings may prove to be critical for employee retention into 2022 and beyond.