Do you want to have a more financially responsible staff? Are you wondering how you can encourage employee financial wellness?

Financial wellness is the ability to manage one’s own financial life. This includes things like living within your means, getting prepared for emergencies, and planning for the future.

Stress that is related to money can affect every aspect of employee wellness. It can cause problems with their personal lives and productivity. It could also lead to physical problems such as sleep loss, anxiety, and digestive issues. 

There’s no doubt that those employees who have financial issues will bring them into the workplace in the form of more sick days used and lower morale. 

But what can you as an employer do to encourage financial fitness in your staff?

Let’s take a look.

1. Offer an Earned Wage Access program 

Earned Wage Access is one of the most popular and growing financial wellness program today. It allows users to have immediate access to the money they have already worked for so they can be handle everyday expenses without stressing about payday.

Nearly 80% of the workforce in the US is an hourly worker and has little or no savings. Having the flexibility of when you’re paid has proven to help people better manage their finances and improve overall stress and wellbeing.

There is no cost to businesses for offering this program and depending on the provider has minimal administrative work because it works with your existing Time and Payroll systems.

2. Workshops and Webinars

Workshops, webinars, and conferences are relatively inexpensive ways to help employees with their financial wellness. Folks can help your workers to learn about saving their money, paying off student learns, or creating a budget. 

You can save even more money by having someone from your finance department provide the talk. Encouraging financial responsibility, especially among your younger employees, will help to create a more positive, productive climate at your company.

3. Employee Discounts

Help your employees trim their financial waistlines by providing them with special perks and discounts because they work for you. This can even be an incentive for employees to stay with your company. 

You can offer employee discounts for insurance, household items, or educational services. Discounts for gym memberships can encourage physical fitness at the same time.

4. Offer Credit Counseling

Many employees struggle with credit problems, which can lead to low credit scores and crippling credit card debt. Credit counseling services can help them learn to take a positive, proactive approach toward getting back on their feet. 

Offering credit counseling to your employees free of charge can help your employees to take back ownership of their financial lives. It can also help them to feel more hopeful about the future.

5. Offer HSAs or FSAs

Many employers offer Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) as part of their health insurance plan. These allow your employees to put aside tax-sheltered money each month that can be used to pay for health-related expenses. These might include glasses, braces, or co-pays.

HSAs also benefit you as an employer because they will lead to lower insurance premiums, lower annual premiums, and improved employee retention.

If an HSA isn’t possible, you may wish to offer a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) to your employees. Like HSAs, FSAs allow employees to put aside money each month that is tax-protected and can be used for health expenses.

Unlike an HSA, however, FSAs are owned by you rather than your employee. Your staff will not be able to roll over any unused funds from year to year.

6. Retirement Plans 

Today’s employees often depend on their employer to help them save for retirement.

One of the most popular plans offered by employers is a 401K plan. Contributions to these plans are not considered taxable income, so employees will be getting to keep more of what they earn.

401K plans are convenient for employees because money is taken out of their paycheck and invested for them automatically. They won’t need to pay taxes on it unless they withdraw the funds. Similar to 401K plans are 403B plans for schools and churches, and 457B plans for government employees. 

Traditional IRAs offer even more tax benefits to employees, allowing employees under 50 to contribute up to $6,000 a year to an account. Those over 50 can contribute up to $7,000 a year. All contributions are tax-deductible.

Roth IRAs allow employees to make bigger contributions that are after-tax. However, they can avoid all taxes on money taken out for retirement as long as they are over 59 1/2 years old.

Benefits of Employee Financial Wellness

Implementing the right financial wellness program for your employees may take a bit of research and creativity. You may even want to conduct surveys and find out what your employees feel they need the most. Open Q and A sessions and individual interviews are also a great way to find out about the greatest financial struggles your employees are facing.

Helping your employees get into good financial shape, however, will have untold benefits for our organization. These include improved productivity and workplace satisfaction. You’ll also enjoy greater employee retention, which will save you time and money on hiring new people regularly.

In addition, you’ll have an increased ability to recruit the best people around when positions do open up. And you’ll enjoy less absenteeism from your staff. 

If you want a happy, healthy, productive set of employees, it pays to invest in their financial futures. Help them to take advantage of available resources so they can be confident about what’s to come.

Fostering Financial Wellness

Maintaining a financially healthy staff is worth your time and money. Help your employees to develop financial wellness through incentives, education, and free counseling. You could have an exemplary group of professionals working for you in no time!

Don’t stop getting smart about employee financial health now. For more information on helping your staff get financially fit, contact us today.