Five questions to ask when introducing new financial wellbeing benefits or services
Financial wellbeing can encompass a wide-ranging set of products and services that need to be presented to employees as a coherent programme.
When selecting a provider, it’s vital to identify what’s important to your organisation in terms of the service they offer. For example, evidence of good governance, feedback on usage patterns, and branded communications.
From a strategic perspective, it’s important to identify financial wellbeing benefits and services that will offer value for money, meet employee needs, fit with other benefits and the organisation’s wider financial wellbeing strategy.
Here are five questions to ask:
1. What will a new benefit or service offer our employees?
Does it address a known problem for people in the workforce and/or give employees a way to improve their financial wellbeing in a way that suits their needs?
2. How will it work alongside existing products and services in our financial wellbeing programme?
Check for overlap with other services – for example, employers may have an EAP that supports employees with financial worries as part of an existing insurance product.
3. How will it support wider HR and business goals?
Will it support DEI initiatives by making a financial wellbeing programme more inclusive or equitable? That could include support for higher earners or more senior employees, as well as helping low earners.
4. What are the provider’s strengths and weaknesses?
Exploring what potential partners do well, and not so well, is a key part of any decision-making process. That could include governance structures or plans for how the product or service will evolve in the future.
5. Do we need to remove or change any other benefits before introducing anything new?
Adding a new benefit or service will inevitably add extra cost. There may be other financial wellbeing benefits – or products from other parts of your reward and benefits portfolio – that are no longer relevant or need to change.
