How to Measure and Evaluate the Success of Your Employee Financial Wellness Programs

Every organization wants to ensure the financial wellness of its employees. After all, financial wellness has been shown to lead to better employee productivity and engagement.¹ 

For businesses to properly measure and evaluate the success of their financial well-being initiatives, they need to track the right indicators in order to understand which areas are thriving and where there is room for improvement.

When it comes to measuring the success of a financial wellness program, the key is to measure both quantitative (participation rates, workplace performance) and qualitative data (surveys, focus groups). 

Keep reading to discover the best way to assess the success of your financial wellness program in both the short and long term.

Establish a Baseline

To accurately measure the success of your program, you first need to establish a baseline. Determine the overall financial state of employees before launching an initiative so that you have benchmarks for comparison after introducing the program.

Consider surveying employees about their current levels of financial education and knowledge as part of establishing a baseline, along with questions related to how much they know about managing debt, investing, or budgeting. 

Your findings may surprise you – did you know that over half of Americans don’t keep a budget or know how much they spend?²

Once the baseline has been established, keep track of key metrics such as participation and completion rates over time in order to measure improvement.

Measure Employee Progress

You can also gain insight into your workplace’s financial wellness by measuring employee progress against initial benchmarks set at the start of each session or program.

Identify metrics that measure both tangible outcomes (such as the number of workshop participants) along with qualitative results (such as attitudes and self-reports or surveys). 

This is especially important for areas not directly connected to finances (such as employee satisfaction), which can be improved if people feel more financially secure.

Aside from using questionnaires and tests, consider also tracking things like employee performance or time spent on financial tasks to get a better understanding of how financial wellness affects work.

Track Financial Literacy Levels and Course Completion Rates

Financial literacy is the core component in assessing your financial wellness program’s success. Alongside monitoring individual employees’ wellness, you will need to assess employees’ direct understanding of financial topics such as budgeting, savings, investments, and debt management.

You assessed your employee’s financial knowledge prior to their participation in the program. Following this financial coaching, be sure to assess your employees’ financial literacy again. This will help you determine whether their knowledge and understanding has improved and where additional education may be necessary.

To gain further insight, consider offering more comprehensive courses that cover more specific topics for a more detailed read on impact. For example, a course focused on retirement planning may be beneficial – according to the Federal Reserve, only 36% of non-retired adults feel their savings are on track for retirement.³

Don’t forget to track your employees’ completion rates, as well, to determine overall effectiveness and fine-tune content if needed.

Analyze Cost Savings and Revenue Generated From Program Improvements

Financial wellness initiatives can have positive impacts beyond improving employee morale. They can help organizations reduce costs and increase revenue by reducing employees’ financial stress.⁴

Consider analyzing any potential money saved, such as costs associated with reduced turnover rates or fewer days spent out of the office due to financial stress-related issues.

Furthermore, analyze any additional revenue that may be generated as a result of the improvements. Potential sources for increased revenue may include higher morale leading to increased productivity, more effective decision-making throughout the organization, or increased customer loyalty.

These strategies will help you get better clarity around the ROI from conducting the program. 

Automate Tracking and Measurement

Measuring the success of a financial wellness program can quickly become cumbersome due to the number of metrics that need tracking. To avoid this, consider automating parts of your financial wellness tracking process using specialized software programs or online applications.

The Enrich financial wellness platform, for example, not only provides employees and employers with a comprehensive, customizable program but also allows employers to track and measure the success of their programs automatically. 

This includes tracking metrics such as participation rates in coaching sessions, progress toward financial goals, and survey responses from participants about their overall financial health.

Long-term Assessment

Finally, to get a truly accurate picture of the effectiveness of your financial wellness program, employers must consider both short-term and long-term successes or improvements. 

Long-term assessment involves tracking metrics such as reduced absenteeism, increased mobility in employees, improved staff retention, and re-employment rates. 

Surveys should also include questions aiming to understand if employees are now more confident with their finances or whether particular areas have seen changes due to education gains obtained through the program.

To help make the assessment more concrete, it is important to commit to specific long-term goals before launching any program – such as aiming towards a certain percentage of employees contributing towards retirement savings or reducing debt collectively.

Tracking these metrics over the years will help you understand if your program has been successful in reaching its desired outcomes or not and inform future initiatives accordingly.

The Importance of Measuring Your Employee Financial Wellness Program's Performance

Measuring and evaluating the success of employee financial wellness programs can be challenging. However, it is crucial, as it helps organizations gain insight into the effectiveness of their initiatives. 

The key is to track both quantitative and qualitative data throughout the process, as well as follow up with long-term goals to ensure that desired outcomes are reached. 

By properly measuring and evaluating the success of employee financial wellness programs, employers can better ensure the financial health of their employees and can also improve the bottom line of their business.

1 - https://www.pwc.com/us/en/industries/private-company-services/images/pwc-8th-annual-employee-financial-wellness-survey-2019-results.pdf

2 - https://www.thepennyhoarder.com/budgeting/budgeting-statistics/

3 - https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2019-economic-well-being-of-us-households-in-2018-retirement.htm

4 - https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/research-reports/financial-wellness-at-work/