Recruiting and retaining top talent can be challenging. Providing a structured retirement plan is important, but a plan without education tends to not meet the needs of your employees, while one that does include education helps instill financial confidence in their future.
A recent study* shows that 48% of employers say financial stress has a significant impact on their employees. This kind of stress is affecting all types of workers in all industries – it’s everywhere - from those that are hourly (45%) to those that are highly compensated (49%). And unfortunately, a company’s bottom line is significantly impacted by their employees’ financial struggles, with 77% reporting their employees are delaying retirement because of their own personal situations.
With 77% of employers reporting that employees are delaying retirement because of personal situations, time is of the essence for employers to focus on what employees really need:
TRUE financial wellness.
What Is True Financial Wellness?
Depending on who you talk to, and when, financial wellness can be different for everyone. In the same sense, the steps you take to achieve it look nearly the same no matter who you are. Millions of people are drowning in debt, have a hard time budgeting, live above their means, or perhaps worse, live paycheck to paycheck. However, taking small, simple steps to start changing the way you think about financial wellness is a good start.
Asking yourself a few questions will help determine your level of financial wellness, and perhaps send you down a path of accomplishing true financial wellness for yourself:
- Are you able to manage expenses without a credit card, and/or are you able to pay off your credit card balance in full each month?
- If some sort of emergency were to occur, such as medical or home, do you have enough saved to cover it?
- Do you feel like you have a positive sense of control over your finances?
- Are you on track to have enough money to retire at the time you plan to do so?
Financial Wellness Is a Benefit for Your Business Too
For the businesses that currently offer this kind of benefit, many of them — 91% in fact — say offering financial wellness has made them more competitive in recruitment and retention of employees. Most notably, 88% report their employees are less stressed because of the financial wellness benefit. Companies explain their rationale for and impact of offering financial wellness programs as extremely positive for both their employees and their company’s bottom line:
- Higher participation in an employee-sponsored retirement savings plan
- Higher productivity levels
- Higher employee retention rate/lower turnover
- Fewer days of work missed by employees
- Reduction in 401(k) loans
- Lower health care costs
The Final Conclusion
While the above reveals some encouraging news, it also highlights challenges ahead when it comes to employer benefits. While a retirement plan is 3rd in the list of Top 10 Benefits offered, it’s only followed by Health Insurance and PTO. As recruiting and retaining employees is challenging, it’s no surprise that financial wellness is the number one benefit companies are looking to add within the next couple of years. And the proof of the value to employees is in the numbers: 51% who have a financial wellness benefit are extremely satisfied with their whole benefits package, while only 36% who don’t offer one can say the same.
In the end, it is important to have a retirement plan partner, such as our Retirement Plan Services, that takes the burden from you, the employer, by providing financial wellness education and resources to your employees. You won’t regret it, and they’ll love you for it.
*The 2021 Financial Wellness Benefits Study by SmartDollar
Products offered through Heartland Retirement Plan Services are not FDIC insured, are not bank guaranteed and may lose value, unless otherwise noted.
Heartland Retirement Plan Services are offered through Dubuque Bank and Trust Company. The information provided herein is general in nature and is not intended to be nor should be construed as specific investment, legal or tax advice. The factual information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but is not guaranteed as to accuracy or completeness. Heartland Retirement Plan Services makes no warranties with regard to the information or results obtained by its use and disclaims any liability arising out of your use of, or reliance on, it.