You know you have a serious issue on your hands when time off work no longer ranks as one of, if not the most important employment factors for employees. Times they are indeed changing and the new winner is, employee financial wellness.
In a recent study, a majority of almost 70% of employees stated that financial wellness is such a key concern for them that they would sacrifice vacation time in order to have an employee benefit available that specifically deals with their financial literacy.
It's becoming such a concern in fact that many of those interviewed didn't stop at just sacrificing time off. Many also stated they would leave their job for an employer that offered better financial benefits. 74% of older workers, climbing to 79% for millennials and over 84% for those in the Gen-Z demographic agreed with this statement.
It's quite easy to understand why the growing number of young workers breaking into the workforce have their finances ranked as such a vital concern. It directly relates to student debt. Prior generations didn't really deal with student loans and as more and more workers enter the workforce with debt, it's not surprising they're not just looking for financial wellness assistance but they're looking for it first-most from their employer.
The result of this wave seems to be that financial wellness is becoming the poster child for all workplace benefits. More and more employees are in fact now demanding it which is creating a real life groundswell. Employers are going to have to start seriously analyzing their current, more traditional benefits offerings and come up with plan to at least insert some financial wellness benefits into this current gap.
Perhaps better yet, they can have their benefits programs completely overhauled so that employee financial wellness sooner than later becomes the new normal of next generation employee benefits programs.