Four tips for a successful financial wellbeing programme
One of the great things about these benefits is that, in the same way financial difficulties outside of work can affect someone's performance, by offering financial support an employer has the potential to create a positive change across every aspect of an employee's life.
However, simple is not necessarily easy and there are few things you should be mindful of when planning out your financial wellbeing program.
1) Know your objectives
Financial wellbeing is a big topic and can mean different things to different people. Understanding what it means for your organisation will both help you select the right provider and assess the success of the initiative later on. Is it about financial literacy? Part of a strategy to help mental wellbeing? A bit of all of those and more as well?
These questions are difficult to answer without a deep understanding of your employees. Dig into the data you already hold, or even run a survey to find out the attitudes of your employees towards their finances. Armed with the right data the correct approach and measures of success will be much clearer.
2) Make sure you understand the detail of your preferred solution
You may find yourself having to learn a different language when dealing with financial wellness providers - many of the solutions are a mix of consumer finance and an employee benefit.
After spending time understanding your employees and deciding what you would like to achieve, it's important to also understand the detail of the solutions on offer. How exactly do they work? What data is required? Where exactly does the value come from? Which represents a better deal for your employees? How do they facilitate positive change? Do they have the data to back it up?
Some financial wellbeing benefits involve a reasonable time commitment. For example, salary deducted loans can mean a multi-year commitment for both you and any employee taking them. Understanding the details will give you the confidence that you are making the right choice over the long term.
3) It's not just about the launch
The launch will be fundamental to the early success of your financial wellbeing initiative. You will need to be sure your chosen provider can support your HR and communications teams in communicating the new benefit to relevant employees. It is obvious, but if they don't know it's there they can't take advantage of the positive changes these kind of benefits can have on their life.
It's an age old employee benefit challenge but especially pertinent for financial wellbeing. Our experience with customers has shown us that people can find themselves in financial difficulty for a wide variety of reasons, and at any time. For your initiative to be successful it needs to be available when people actually need it. We find the best way to make sure that happens is by regular, varied communication - without being spammy of course!
4) Make sure you can measure your success
Tip one was all about having clear objectives so it's only logical that tip four is actually measuring against them. You no doubt worked hard to build a case for financial wellbeing within your business - this is how you prove you were right.
Many financial wellbeing benefits are delivered digitally so there will be a lot of measures available. You can see everything from visitor numbers and onsite engagement, to how many people are applying for products and completing financial capability training.
Beyond the data there is also qualitative feedback from employees - we are consistently blown away by the positive comment from us customers. All this will help to demonstrate the positive benefits your employees are getting from the initiative.
This article was provided by SalaryFinance.
In partnership with Salary Finance Inc
We understand the impact finances have on our health, our happiness, our home life & our work life.
