Financial
Well-Being

Michael: You’re listening to Workplace Matters. What does an employee want from their work beyond their paycheck? What are the important benefits workplaces can offer and why should they offer them? Today, we spoke with experts to better understand these questions and the importance financial well-being. 

Shelly Freemole: I think this can really vary from person to person. 

Michael: Shelly Freemole is a vice president and retirement plan officer with Iowa based Hills Bank which services many small to medium size businesses as a benefits administrator and advisor. 

Shelly Freemole: I think what underlies financial well-being, for employees is really a sense of safety and confidence. It’s a sense of confidence that they are going to be able to not only pay their bills, but they’re going to be able to handle unexpected things that come up or emergencies that occur for themselves or their families. Financial well-being for employees is really about how compensation works together with employee benefits to create long term financial well-being. 

Michael: The combination of compensation and benefits together can create financial well-being, but how does a business find the balance between these two? Shelly would suggest looking at workplace trends and changes in employee expectations. 

Shelly Freemole: I think there’s been a shift in employee expectations. It’s a shift away from something that’s just a personal issue to something that’s more now a shared responsibility between employee and employer. People are really looking to their employers to provide that help, that guidance, those tools to help them to save, not just to invest for retirement. The other shift is sort of away from one size fits all type of approach to something that’s a little bit more personalized, maybe depending, on those ages and stages that a person is in their life. They’re looking for long term stability.  

Michael: As employee expectations and needs shift, the financial benefits workplaces offer will need to shift too. 

Shelly Freemole Let’s keep in mind that 63% of employees live paycheck to paycheck. So what they’re looking for is practical tools to solve real world problems. The number one thing that’s in demand for employees currently, and that’s access to emergency savings accounts ESAs. And of course, those are a way to build personal savings via payroll deduction. Also things like debt management. Think about free services that are provided by debt counselors. Consider moving away from the one size fits all approach and instead towards tiered benefits. 

Michael: What stage of their life and career employees are at will highly influence which benefits will be most important to them. Recent college graduates need different financial supports than an employee nearing retirement. These are tiered benefits. 

Shelly Freemole: People who are early in their career: So they’re interested in sort of debt management programs, how to even get started, how to get enrolled, how to start their retirement savings. Parents or caregivers: They want to have flexibility in their schedule. They want to know what leave policies are, what sort of PTO they are entitled to, their ability to have predictable income. Mid-career folks who are starting to think a little bit more seriously about retirement. They want to ensure that they’re on track for retirement. And then finally, is that group that is transitioning into retirement, the pre-retirement category. That transition into retirement from a healthcare perspective. And then of course, how they can turn their retirement savings into income. 

Michael: That is a brief overview of what employees may want from their benefits. But how do you get employees to utilize them? While that may sound counter intuitive, financial benefits and especially supplemental benefits, are highly underutilized despite the growing need for them.  

Shelly Freemole: Focus on the three E’s enrollment, education, and engagement. Enrollment: Make sure people- the new hires to your organization become enrolled in the benefits. Education: Make sure people are aware of what their participation includes in the various plans and benefits that you offer. Engagement: How are your employees interacting with the benefits that have been offered to them? 

Shelly Freemole: I think that an employee’s ability to understand their benefits, of course, is critical for them actually using those benefits. There’s often, an onboarding process for employees, not everybody is going to take that in the first time. And it’s not going to apply to everybody at that moment in time. Maybe it’s just not the age or stage that they’re in. We know that people need to be reminded of their benefits between three and seven times before it really sinks in. You can see how that would be especially true for a person if-   if it’s not applicable to them yet. 

Michael: Another critical part of benefit utilization is confidentiality. It is not the role of the employer to have oversight over an employee’s finances.  

Shelly Freemole: There are certain privacy restrictions that that should come into play. And so for me, the best way to sort of alleviate that risk is to involve a third party. A third party; Of course, you’re looking for accredited licensed individuals who can provide professional help to your employees. And that provides the degree of separation. 

Shelly Freemole: Involve the vendors and partners that you’ve enlisted to help you administer your benefits. We at Hills Bank are invited, on site in a lot of cases to deliver either group presentations that where we can talk about certain financial wellness topics or talk about what’s going on in the market and how that’s affecting their, their 401(k) plan. Office hours, the concept where employees can sign up for, say, a twenty minute time slot to sit down with a financial professional to ask personalized questions. 

Michael: Employees want to work somewhere they feel they are valued. Providing a robust suite of financial benefits that are flexible can help attract and retain talent.  

Shelly Freemole: Monitor to see the success of your financial wellness programming. Watch retention trends, employees who understand and appreciate their benefits will stay with their employer. It can be a way to retain your employees. It also can be a way to build a strong and solid reputation as a good employer. To help with your recruitment of new talent. We know that employers care about their employees. Investing in your workforce means that people are happier and alleviated from some of their financial stressors will be more engaged and less distracted at work. And those business results will follow. 

Michael: Workplace Matters is supported by the national institute for occupational safety and health. To listen to more podcasts, view our ongoing video series, or for more information about us, visit HealthierWorkforceCenter(dot) org. Thank you.