Finding the perfect fit for financial education
Employees are worried about money and it is affecting their health, relationships and productivity at work.
Information overload
Financial education is often seen as the most effective route to engaging employees with budgeting, saving and investing, yet today’s workers are subject to a deluge of information. They are time poor and their attention has become a stretched resource.
Traditional approaches appear to have failed to capture employee’s attention - with only 19% of workers happy with current communication strategies.
There are several reasons behind ineffectual communication. First is taking a one-dimensional approach and relying on just one medium, tool or technique to engage with employees.
Second is the incorrect assumption that individuals with shared ages have shared experiences. Typically communication has been targeted at traditional segmentation groups, rather than understanding that all ages and socio-economic classes experience financial strain which do not necessarily replicate the difficulties facing those of their peers.
Timing is also an issue. Too often little thought has been given to targeting communication at a relevant time for employees which would encourage them to take positive action.
Get personal
Effective communication needs to move towards a multi-layered approach which caters to the individual’s situation and experience.
Research shows that using just one tool or technique to communicate with employees resulted in just 51% engagement with benefits. Increasing the number of communication tools to four or more resulted in an engagement level of 87%.
Mercer suggests a unique approach to communication which is based on three steps. Click here to read more.
This article was supplied by Mercer.
