For many employers, the term “Wellness” is used to encapsulate a philosophy or an approach to employee benefits. In other words, the goal of a benefits program is to improve the overall well-being of employees and their families.
Achieving Well-being
But what does that term wellness really mean? What are the determinants? How do you measure employee well-being and what sort of programs can you put in place to improve it?
Financial Wellness Update, GuideSpark’s new monthly email publication will be dedicated to providing Human Resources professionals with information, tips and best practices for implementing workplace Financial Wellness programs and establishing best-in-class Benefits Communications.
“Over the last two years, HR interest in effective approaches for helping employees understand their workplace benefits and solve their personal financial issues has grown considerably,” said John Wolff, Vice President, Business Development. “This newsletter will serve as a platform for sharing what we’ve learned in a decade of experience helping employees in these areas.”
MetLife released its 8th installment of its Annual Study of Benefits Trends on Monday. In comparison to prior
Employee financial issues a central theme in this year's survey
years, the themes of employee financial security and benefits communications played a more prominent role than ever before. This was a natural emphasis given the backdrop of economic volatility and a renewed employer focus on benefits cost control.
We wanted to highlight and provide my perspective on three key points that came out of this year’s study:
One of the largest issue that our clients face is providing comprehensive and affordable health care for employees and
Focused Benefits Education Can Help You Drive CDHP Enrollment
their families. In light of recent studies, employer interest in Consumer Driven Health Plans or CDHPs has grown tremendously. In fact, a recent study by NBGH/Towers Watson finds that 54% of companies offer a CDHP and that number is expected to grow to 61% in 2011.
In 2007, for the first time since MetLife began running their Annual MetLife Study of Employee Benefits Trends, more than half of employees surveyed indicated that they receive a majority of their financial products from their employer.
For most HR professionals this may seem somewhat intuitive. Prior to 2008, many employers had built out their benefits, retirement and equity programs to compete in what was considered an all out war for talent. So, it may not be surprising that the large investments that employers have made to offer a compelling total compensation package have made employers the number one source of financial products for their employees.
Back in 2000, April was declared “Financial Literacy for Youth Month.” Now, it’s just “Financial Literacy Month.” Over the course of the last decade, it seems that us grown ups have shown that we really don’t know much more about money than our kids do – and therefore the Senate decided to drop the “youth” bit and include us adults in their call for better financial education.
A real change over the next decade could be a massive reconsideration of tax deferred savings plans. Exemplifying this shift, the new 2010 Roth IRA conversion rules seem to be getting lots of press and stirring widespread investor interest. So what’s behind the buzz?
In our September 09’ blog, “Rethinking the 401(k) Pitch” , we underscored how the tax landscape had changed since IRA’s were introduced in the early 80’s. We recounted that federal income tax brackets reached as high as 70% when 401(k)’s and IRA’s were introduced and it made perfect sense to shield everything we could from the taxman and bank on taking the money out at lower tax rates in the future
A mainstay of employer Benefits Communications is to preach the virtues of Flexible Spending Accounts. But is there perhaps a better tax opportunity out there for your dependent care related expenses?
The next few entries look at creating a positive financial future into the next decade by employing some common sense financial wellness principals.
First let’s consider using someone else’s money for to finance our stuff.
The financial wellness rule of thumb is that borrowing money to make a purchase only makes sense if the commodity to be purchased has a realistic chance of appreciating in value.
On December 8, GuideSpark presented a webinar called “The Need for Financial Wellness”. In this webinar we discussed how poor financial health is affecting companies and their employees. The webinar was well attended and definitely shows that financial wellness is becoming an important issue at corporations across America. In fact, the following poll shows that most attendees believed that 26-50% of employees are being negatively affected by financial issues.
