Financial stability is becoming an increasing concern in today’s economy. Are your employees paid enough to live and keep their bills paid? Do they have a cushion, or are they living from paycheck to paycheck? What about a retirement fund, or other, unexpected expenses that arise? One way you can show your employees that you care about their economic well-being is by creating a financial wellness program to help them achieve the stability they need, both now and in the future. Here are a few ideas you can implement.
Workshops
The first step in financial stability is education. Hold workshops that show your employees how to manage their money wisely, including budgeting for ongoing expenses, preparing for
emergencies, investing for the future, and more.
Experts from local financial institutions will often be willing to come speak to your employees for a fairly low cost. Make the speakers aware of how much your employees make, so they can provide realistic advice that’s specific to their situation.
Most importantly, encourage employees to come with questions and issues that the experts can help them with. Providing financial advice in theory is one thing, but situations can be very different in practice, when it comes to how much you spend on different things. Workshops should be able to provide viable, real world solutions for real world problems.
Financial Planning
Managing your current budget is the first step. But the ultimate goal is to be able to move up the financial ladder. Employees who rent apartments may want to be able to own their own homes. Newly married employees may have enough for themselves, but in a few years they might need to support children as well—and one day send those children to college.
Goals like this require more than an occasional workshop. They require ongoing financial planning. There are a number of financial institutions your company can partner with to help employees with this. Give them the opportunity to enroll in programs designed to help them build their savings with these goals in mind.
Perks and Benefits
With workshops and financial planning partnerships, you’re helping employees to help themselves. But if you really want to show them that their financial wellness matters to you, you should invest some of your own resources into it.
There are any number of perks you can provide that are designed to aid your employees’ financial stability. One of the best benefits you can provide is help to relieve debt. The average college graduate from the class of 2016 had a student loan debt of nearly $38,000. By allocating a certain amount of money above an employee’s monthly salary, to be paid directly to their lender on their behalf, you can reduce the financial burden on them and help them get out of debt much sooner.
Of course, student loans aren’t the only major expense that can burden your employees. Other perks you can provide include fertility treatments or adoption expenses for workers looking to start a family. You can offer protection against identity theft, to keep a stolen password or credit card from ruining them. You can even prepay for legal services, to guard against expensive court proceedings. Talk to your employees and find out what their most pressing financial obligations are. Then see if there’s a way that your company can foot some or all of the bill, in order to ease the burden and help make them more financially solvent.
Taking an active interest in your employees’ financial well-being shows that you care about them, not just as cogs in a machine, but as valued members of your company’s family. These options for attaining stability can make great perks to bring new talent into your company, or incentives to help retain your existing employees for longer and reduce turnover. By investing a little bit now in their financial wellness, you can reap the rewards for years to come.