Here’s How To Get Started on a Financial Wellness Program

Financial wellness has become one of the top concerns for employers and employees alike, throughout the world. The increased sensitivity of several organisations towards their employee’s financial wellness is extremely visible from the Bank of America Report, titled “ 2020 workplace benefits report”. In the said report, it was recorded that as many as 62 percent of the employers feel “extremely responsible” for their employee’s financial wellness in the year 2020, as opposed to just 13 per cent in the year 2013. 

On an individual employee level, financial wellness and the associated stress are some of the most significant concerns in most of the workforce. In fact, according to the Betterment for Business report (2020), as many as 77% of millennials and Gen Z in the workforce are of the opinion that thinking about their finances causes them stress which consequently affects their performance at work. 

From the above reports, it is easy to gauge that in the present times, a financial wellness program has become a must-have benefit for all organisations, regardless of their size or structure. 

Financial wellness Program: What exactly does it mean 

In contemporary times, the organisational setup as well as its goals have become fairly dynamic. A vast majority of the organisations recognise the fact that there is a palpable rise in the employee’s expectation from a financial wellness program. Therefore, it is pertinent to understand what exactly a financial wellness program may mean to each and every stakeholder involved. 

The concept of a financial wellness program has evolved from the exponential growth in the complexities in the field of personal finances. Along with the abundance in the availability of personal finance options, financial wellness programs are essentially aimed at providing effective assistance to all the employees in meeting their personal finance goals.

For instance, with the COVID 19 outbreak, it was seen that even the remote employees needed assistance with respect to the contingent situations arising such as an unexpected medical bill or managing the household or personal finances with salary cuts.

Essentially, a financial wellness programme can entail assistance with respect to matters like consumer credit building, financial goal setting, financial crisis management, personal and household budgeting among others. 

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Financial wellness program: Where and how to start

Owing to the very subjective nature of the benefits that a financial wellness program aims to provide, it is not possible to have a straight jacket formula as to what an ‘ideal’ financial wellness program can be. Since personal finances and its related problems will be different for different employees,  no one-size-fits solution can be laid down which will make a financial wellness programme tick.

However, since it plays a  very important role in the organisation’s success, here are a few steps that you can keep in mind: 

• Identify the diverse and contemporary needs of your employees

The workforce today is far from being homogenous. It comprises people of different generations, different backgrounds and varied personal finance goals and aspirations. The first step is to identify what is the void that we are trying to fill by way of this financial wellness program. 

• Try finding offbeat approaches or combinations of approaches to the financial wellness of the employees 

Different kinds of personal finance problems can be tackled by different kinds of techniques. It is pivotal that you pick and choose the techniques and facilities that effectively help your employees in the most effective manner. For instance, Google not only offers financial advisors and financial education but also extensively believes in showering its employees with perks like free lunches, happy hours, snack bar et al. So, it is pivotal to choose from a plethora of services that are available today to make such a financial wellness program which suits the needs of your workforce the best. 

• Have a robust feedback mechanism in place 

Since matters pertaining to personal finances can be extremely subjective, it is important to keep a line of communication open constantly for the ultimate beneficiaries of the financial wellness program. For instance, the personal finance needs of the employees significantly changed during the COVID 19 Pandemic and from office perks, more emphasis had to be given to medical facilities, ergonomic needs for WFH et al. 

• Try to set up tangible goals for the success of the financial wellness program 

You can set up certain parameters and benchmarks for measuring the success of the financial wellness program and can periodically review its viability keeping these benchmarks and qualitative checks in view. This will render your financial wellness program extremely dynamic, along with being perfectly aligned with your organisation’s growth. 

Concluding words 

Having a well rounded, dynamic and personalised financial wellness program for each and every one of your employees may seem to be a tedious task.  The task is painstaking but definitely not impossible to manage. You can look at how popular brands have designed their financial wellness programs and try to fashion one of your own for your organization.
Apart from that, you can also partner up with a 3rd party organisation that has the requisite knowledge and specialised skills to handle all personal finance needs of your employees. 

We, at Fibe, are your perfect financial wellness partners. With loads of services at your disposal such as easy salary advances, instant loans, flexible EMIs among other things, we can take care of all your employees’ financial wellness needs with just a few clicks. What are you waiting for? Partner up with us and take care of all of your organization’s financial wellness needs. 

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