3 Proven Ways to Increase Employee Financial Wellness Program Participation

Your employees were struggling before the pandemic, and the last two years haven't made their financial picture any stronger. Employers across the United States realize this and are committed to helping.

Your employees were struggling before the pandemic, and the last two years haven't made their financial picture any stronger. Employers across the United States realize this and are committed to helping.

In fact, the 2021 Workplace Benefits Report¹ found that 95% of employers feel responsible for helping their employees achieve financial wellness and almost half now offer financial wellness programs.

The problem is, however, that just because you offer financial wellness to employees does not mean that they use the program – despite wanting it and needing it. The 2019 PwC Employee Financial Wellness Survey found that almost one-third of employees who had access to financial wellness programs did not use them.²

This may be related to a 2020 PwC³ finding that employees don't focus on financial wellness all the time. When asked when they were most likely to seek financial help, employees stated the following:

• Need to make an important financial decision (42%)
• In a financial crisis (25%)
• Experiencing a life event (10%)
• Never (8%)
• Other reasons (15%)

These numbers are concerning because financial wellness should be top-of-mind for employees since financial stress is currently so high. Here are three things you can do to help boost participation.

1. Increase Employee Awareness

Despite employers communicating with employees about their benefits programs, the majority of employees do not know these programs exist.

The 2019 PwC study found that 24% of employees state their company has a financial wellness program. Yet, the Workplace Benefits Report shows that the number should be nearly double that.

Even if they know the program exists, they may not understand why they need a financial wellness program or what it can do for them.

For example, there is a real possibility that you have employees who need to learn how to budget or reduce their debt but do not realize that your financial wellness program will help with anything other than retirement planning.

When communicating with employees about financial wellness, be sure to:

Piggyback information with communications you currently send

• Make them credible – they should not look like an advertisement for a financial product
• Provide real-life examples of employees who have used the program and found it helpful
• Explain that the financial wellness program is personalized to fit the employee where they are, addressing their unique needs

Keep Reading: Consistent Messaging Strategies for a Successful Financial Wellness Program

Enrich offers a money personality assessment that can help employees see the need for financial wellness.

Not only will they come to understand how they think about and use money, but they will also be given a personalized plan of action to strengthen their financial wellness.

2. Reduce Stigma

An employee struggling with excessive debt may not be willing to seek help for fear of being labeled. One way to reduce this problem is to show how others – especially leaders, managers, or executives – use the program.

To do this, create in-person events, videos, or articles where others explain their money issues and how the program helped.

When others talk about money in the open, it becomes a normal topic instead of one to be hidden. Plus, when employees see their peers using the program and finding success, they are more likely to give it a try.

3. Make It Easy

Garnter, in their 2020 Well-Being Employee Survey⁴, found that 38% chose not to participate in wellness programs because they were too busy. Unfortunately, these employees often have no time or energy due to financial issues.

That is why you need to make your financial wellness program easy to access and use.

• Make signing up for financial wellness easy by putting financial wellness with other wellness programs. Enrich offers a seamless interface and branding.
• Offer incentives or challenges to employees for signing up or taking part in an area of the program, such as completing the initial financial assessment.
• Offer a program that can be used anywhere at any time. That way, your employees can fit in a few minutes of financial wellness when it fits their schedule.
• Make sure the financial wellness information and education comes in bite-sized chunks so that your employees can complete sessions in a minimal amount of time.

Offering financial wellness to your employees is the right thing to do. By using the Enrich platform, we can help you with your communication efforts about the program and help your employees see how the program would be beneficial to them.

Ready to Learn More? Request a Demo.

1 - https://business.bofa.com/content/dam/flagship/workplace-benefits/id20_0905/documents/2021-WBR.pdf

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

3 - https://www.pwc.com/us/en/industries/private-company-services/images/pwc-9th-annual-employee-financial-wellness-survey-2020.pdf

4 - https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/make-way-for-a-more-human-centric-employee-value-proposition