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8 Ways to Empower Employees Through Financial Education

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These days, many people are dealing with stress from all kinds of personal financial concerns. This can harm workforce wellbeing — especially when people aren’t sure how to manage these issues or who they can trust for advice. That’s why organizations are increasingly offering workforce financial education.

But which strategies are most effective in helping employees develop financial literacy — especially considering that everyone has a different level of financial knowledge and experience?

We asked HR superstars to share one recommendation from their employee benefits and DEI programs. Here are 7 of the best suggestions we received:

  • Offer Resources to Help Employees Make Informed Choices
  • Host Budgeting Workshops and One-on-One Coaching
  • Think in Terms of Financial Wellness
  • Be Sensitive to an Employee’s Financial Literacy Level
  • Keep Equity in Mind When Offering Resources
  • Add More Benefits Instead of Outsourcing
  • Leverage Employee Questions and Anecdotes

To learn more about how you can make these ideas work for your organization, read the full responses below…

7 Proven Ways to Boost Employee Financial Education

1. Offer Resources to Help Employees Make Informed Choices

Financial literacy is an important life skill that can have a major impact on an individual’s overall wellbeing. Unfortunately, many employees lack the financial knowledge and resources necessary to make informed decisions about their money. As a result, they may end up making poor choices. And those choices can lead to serious financial problems down the road.

However, there are steps HR leaders can take to help employees improve their financial literacy. For example, you can offer resources to help employees make informed financial decisions. This can include access to basic financial education courses, budgeting tools, and debt management assistance. 

By tapping into these resources, employees gain the knowledge and skills they need to make better money decisions, avoid future financial difficulties, and improve their overall wellbeing.

Teresha Aird, Chief Marketing Officer and HR Lead, Offices.net

 

2. Host Budgeting Workshops or One-on-One Coaching

At our company, we offer different levels of financial education and resources. We recognize that not everyone is comfortable discussing or learning about personal finance, so we want to ensure we provide various resources that cater to different needs and preferences.

For example, we provide budgeting workshops for employees who want to get a better handle on daily money management. And for those who prefer a more personal approach, we offer one-on-one financial coaching. We also provide resources on our intranet and website for employees who want to learn more about finance-related topics on their own time. 

By offering a variety of resources that address different interests, we hope to make it easier for all of our employees to understand and take control of their finances.

Tracey Beveridge, HR Director, Personnel Checks

 

3. Think in Terms of Financial Wellness

Some organizations approach their benefits and DEI programs from a “financial wellness” perspective. Financial wellness is about much more than money management — it’s about creating a holistic, well-rounded view of one’s financial situation and health.

A financial wellness program can address people with different levels of financial literacy in several ways. One common approach is to provide employees with a variety of financial education options and resources, depending on their needs and interests. For example, employees who are just starting out may need more basic information on topics like budgeting and saving for retirement. Those who are further along in their financial journey are likely to benefit from more advanced topics like investing and estate planning.

No matter what an employee’s level of financial literacy may be, it’s important to provide them with accurate and up-to-date information. This means employers should plan to regularly review, refresh and adjust available content, courses, tools and resources.

Linda Shaffer, Chief People Operations Officer, Checkr

 

4. Be Sensitive to an Employee’s Financial Literacy Level

It is important to provide employees with the resources they need to make informed decisions about benefits and DEI programs, without forcing them to take part in activities they are not comfortable with.

One approach is to provide employees with resources that are tailored to their level of financial literacy. For example, you could offer an online course for employees who want to learn more about personal finance. Or, you could provide a list of recommended books or websites for employees who want to learn more on their own.

Another approach is to hold workshops or seminars on various financial topics. You can tailor these events to different levels of financial literacy so all employees can benefit from the information presented.

Alysha M. Campbell, Founder and CEO, CultureShift HR

 

5. Keep Equity in Mind When Offering Resources

It’s important to understand that we all start at different places in life. While this may seem like a given, many struggle with truly understanding how this applies to financial literacy. 

Specifically, many individuals from different racial backgrounds were not privy to having a mother or father to teach them the ins and outs of financial literacy. This is why equity is so important in the workplace. Equity recognizes that giving everyone the same tools or resources isn’t effective, and instead ensures that each individual has what they need to be successful. 

Keeping equity in mind when planning and managing your employee benefits offerings is one way to ensure that each employee has what they need. Resources every employer should offer include financial coaching, legal assistance, and workshops about credit, budgeting, and the importance of investing.

Tawanda Johnson, HR Leader, Sporting Smiles

 

6. Add More Benefits Instead of Outsourcing

Our employee benefits are managed through another company, so we aren’t able to decide what most of the options are. However, this past year, the benefit premiums increased. Still, the company could add more benefits to make the overall package more robust and attractive to current and new employees. Adding these incremental benefits could help offset the premium increase.

Lindsey Hight, HR Professional, Sporting Smiles

 

7. Leverage Participant Questions and Anecdotes

When addressing financial topics in DEI programs where attendees have different financial literacy levels, we want to help participants understand the benefits of concepts like retirement plans, debt management, and budgeting. Then we explain the fundamentals of these subjects.

An excellent way to explain these concepts is by welcoming questions from attendees. Then we use real-world examples to make the topics clear enough for individuals, no matter what their financial literacy level may be.

Grace He, People and Culture Director, teambuilding.com

Financial Well-being = Mental Well-being For Employees

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Keeping employees focused and productive can be a challenge for many companies. The amount of research that’s been conducted around this topic has grown exponentially over the past decade and for good reason. Without a doubt, when employees feel more at ease and unburdened by their personal financial situation, they will be more focused on their work duties and with that, have their heads in the game.

Financial Stress Is Disruptive… And Not For The Better

Through a 2016 survey, PwC uncovered startling results regarding financial stress. The findings revealed, 52% of employees claim to be stressed and preoccupied about their financial state, with 45% claiming their finances cause them the most overall stress in their lives.

According to financial guru, Dave Ramsey, over 55% of employees in the United States are disengaged in the workplace due to some level of financial stress. Some researchers believe this equates to approximately 20 hours of unproductive and wasted hours per month. The repercussions of low productivity and how this impacts an organization’s bottom line is deleterious, but understanding the many causes that come into play when calculating the disruptive nature of financial stress is more complicated.

Disengaged employees are less likely concerned about customer satisfaction, show less loyalty to their employer, experience higher healthcare costs related to stress-related illness, and are more likely to be absent from work. In addition, the burden of financial stress can be something people carry with them as they enter into the workforce, and not something that manifests due to a life-long habit of poor money management or misfortunate circumstances.

According to a 2013 study in the publication Anxiety, Coping and Stress, researchers found that recent college grads with greater perceived financial stress experienced more anxiety and depression as compared to their counterparts who were not saddled with financial burdens. Financially, in 2014, seven out of ten college seniors exited school with an average of $28,400 in student debt, as reported by the group, Project on Student Debt. These findings equate to the condition of new talent entering the workforce and the state of emotional distress they experience before even starting their career pursuits.

On the opposite end of the spectrum from new people entering the workforce are the employees who cannot afford to retire. In a recent Charles Schwab survey of 1,000 401(k) participants, nearing retirement age, it was reported that 24% of them admit to being stressed about their retirement finances more than their job security. This has led many people to reconsider their retirement age and continue working to a much older age, than anticipated, to qualify for a bigger payout of their social security benefits.

Help Is On The Way

As many companies today offer employees physical wellness programs, incorporating financial responsibility training is, also, a doable offering. “Personal finance is 80% behavioral and 20% head knowledge,” states Dave Ramsey. Ramsey believes this is due to people simply not understanding how to manage their money and further knowing very little about making the money they do have work in their favor… this is where education comes into play.

With the assistance of organizations that specialize in employee wellness and benefits plans, employers can offer informative programs as an on-going and informal learning process. One thing companies need to understand is that financial stress can occur because of different reasons. What may be the cause of financial stress for one person may not be the same stressor for someone else. Illness, divorce, and unforeseen situations like personal injury, or the responsibility of primary caregiving to an aging parent are not situations people necessarily prepare for, but once they occur, financial stress usually follows. Regardless, of the cause, education is still the key here. Along with education comes confidence. When people feel more in control of their financial state, they will feel good about other things in their life and respond accordingly.

Employers can, also, incentivize employees to participate in financial wellness programs by offering company-paid inducements such as: company-wide financial retreats, lunch and learns, or bonus days to participate in financial learning classes off the work premises.

Integrating programs that instruct your employees on various financial savings and financial protection techniques with emphasis on the benefits of why it’s in their best interest to participate, shows that employers have a bona fide interest in their most precious asset: their human capital.

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