3 Simple Ways to Improve Financial Health

Improving employee financial wellness may seem like a complicated undertaking to take on, but fret not. When it comes down to it, you only need 3 things to accomplish your goals:

• Give peace of mind for the future (retirement, 401k, etc.)
• Help employees clean up any past debt (student loan repayment plan)
• Provide a day-to-day financial health solution (PayActiv)

But why do this in the first place? Why go out of your way to improve your employees’ financial health—a personal, often taboo topic? Well, it’s all about improving profitability (and not to mention, being an employer who cares about the wellbeing of their workers). The more faith employees hold in their present and future prosperity, the more productive and engaged they are in your workplace. It’s simple, really.

Offer Retirement Plan Options

Offering retirement plan options—from a 401k, 403b, IRAs, profit-sharing to defined-benefit (or pension) plans—can help attract and retain valuable employees. According to a new AICPA survey conducted by Harris Poll, 49% of American adults are worried they won’t have the financial capacity to sustain a comfortable life in retirement. And, needless to say, the thought of not being able to support yourself in old age—such as not being able to pay for rent, medications, or other health care costs—can and will weigh affect one’s ability to perform their best at work.

Luckily, there are many retirement options you can choose from to best fit your unique company and provide your employees with financial wellness. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Look for an established 401k (or the like) provider with a first-rate reputation
• If you employ many part-time, low paid workers, a simple IRA benefit might be best
• Plan on offering a 401k? Be aware of the discrimination test guidelines beforehand

The added bonus? Employer contributions to retirement plans are generally tax-deductible, too.

Offer A Student Loan Repayment Plan

According to the Society for Human Resource Management, only 4% of employers currently offer a student loan repayment plan as an employee financial benefit. However, it’s expected to grow exponentially in popularity in the coming years. In fact, 76% of respondents to the American Student Assistance “Life Delayed” survey reported that, if all other job benefits were the same, the decision to choose a job which offers this benefit to one that doesn’t would be affected or decided based on an employer’s readiness to offer a student loan repayment plan.

And, it’s no surprise that the indebted are eager to receive help—spread out among 44 million borrowers, America is currently under a whopping $1.45 trillion in student loan debt. Not to mention, the average student in the class of 2016 has $37,172 to pay back in borrowed money.

The incentive to help employees with their student loan debt? Student loan debt is debilitating to well-being, health, and productivity, and offering relief benefits employees and employers alike.

Here are some companies to take inspiration from:

• Fidelity makes manager-level and below employees eligible to receive up to $2,000 per year (up to $10,000 total) toward repayment of their student loan debt.
• Aetna offers up to $2,000 to match employee student loan payments (up to $10,000) for full-time employees and $1,000 (up to $5,000) for part-time employees.
• PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) offers their associates and senior associates up to $1,200 per year and up to $7,200 toward an employee’s student loan debt.

Implement A Day-to-Day Financial Health Solution

Retirement plans help employees feel confident in their future, and student loan repayment plans provide support on past financial debt. But, what about the here and now? Isn’t a day-to-day financial health solution paramount to sustaining employee financial wellness?

We think that’s the case here at PayActiv. The statistics show us just how necessary it really is:

• 45% of employees identify financial matters as the most stressful issue they face
• 40% have difficulty meeting their household expenses each month
• 55% say their top concern is not having enough savings for unexpected expenses
• 38 percent of workers say they sometimes live paycheck-to-paycheck

This financial anxiety is not only hurting employees, but employers as well. PayActiv offers a holistic financial wellness solution which grants employees access to their earned-but-unpaid wages to relieve employee financial stress and improve workplace performance. By doing this, we remove the between-paychecks stress for employees and empower them with the dignity, security, and savings they deserve. Employers see increased productivity and engagement in the workplace as a result. In fact, PayActiv customers see a 30% increase (and sometimes more) in retention after offering our program. Our implementation is even easy: Setup takes less than a day to complete and we provide all marketing roll-out material for your company.

Luckily, if your company wants to improve employee financial wellness, a few steps can go a long way to help your employees and streamline recruitment, retention, and engagement. Interested in offering a day-to-day financial health solution? Contact us at PayActiv today.