Employee financial distractions are leading to a cumulative negative impact on the workplace and ultimately playing a huge factor in the recent decrease of corporate bottom lines.
What can employers do about it ? Revolutionize the current benefits available to employees and lead the way out.
This type of approach is not that hard to reconcile. After all, any benefit that has been introduced into the workforce has done so through some type of revolution. In the early days of health related employee problems, when employers realized that employees who couldn’t afford proper care wouldn't be unable to work and thus cost their companies money in the form of productivity loss, employers addressed this issue by paying for and offering new health benefits. Today, a standard component of any workplace benefits offering.
The revolution of financial benefits into the workforce should be no different, and after all, employers really are quite uniquely positioned to deliver top quality financial services to their employee base.
Firstly, employer led financial wellness services are not designed for corporate profit, thus enabling employees to access many wellness services at a lower rate than they could on the open market. It also enables employers to make sure that all employees, regardless of background, income level or credit history, have access to financial wellness services, similar to the way in which employer-sponsored health plans provided all employees access to health benefits.
Secondly, employers also have relative control over employee payroll, allowing employers to put many very beneficial financial wellness habits such as savings and credit score building on “auto pilot” for employees through employee directed payroll deductions.
The timing has never been more urgent for employers to play a much more significant role in their employees’ financial lives. The business world post Covid-19 is at the beginning of a new movement likely 10x larger than the employer-provided healthcare movement was in the past.
The potential impacts and opportunities for a new leading approach to employee financial wellness from employers are limitless. In the end, if done right both employees and employers alike will be the winners of this revolution.