In an upcoming Webcast, financial wellness experts from GuideSpark will discuss the increasing need for employers to address employee financial education and health – while realizing a return on investment of over 3:1.
Poor employee financial health is having a negative impact on organizational objectives and productivity. Four out of five employees in financial distress spend time at work dealing with such financial issues – resulting in a 12 to 20 hour drain on productivity – each month.
Employee financial health issues are negatively impacting key organizational objectives and should be a key priority among employers, advises GuideSpark.
Forward-thinking companies that implement financial wellness initiatives can expect a return on investment of over 3:1, according to recent studies.
In its new white paper, “The Need for Financial Wellness,” experts from GuideSpark (formerly ThriveOn) discuss the advantages available to companies that take ownership of the financial health and wellness of their employees.
What motivates someone to change their financial behavior? For example, can someone who is prone to spend every dime really be turned into a saver?
Fear can certainly be a motivator. For some it takes a tangible, in your face type fear like “I will lose my car if I can’t make the balloon payment that’s due in three months”. The force behind saving to avoid losing your wheels can be powerful. But when the pain goes so away, often so does the temporary positive behavior. But still, something kicked in that worked. I call this phenomenon, “adrenaline induced” financial behavior change.
As November fast approaches, you are likely beginning to receive important communications about Open Enrollment. If you’re like many employees, you may have already decided to just stick with your current elections – after all, they seem to have worked out well enough. This year, more than others in the past, taking a passive approach to Open Enrollment may be an expensive decision.
Several significant trends are signaling a reset of how families plan and think about college costs. The evidence suggests that creative solutions will be required as key economic factors are conspiring to make a college degree financially more elusive.
Let’s look at the new realities of saving for higher education:
For nearly 30 years, employees have been coached that the best way to save for retirement is to take advantage of tax deferred investing, most prominently through their 401(k) plans. This strategy has always been anchored in the hope that lower tax brackets await us during our retirement years. But current economic realities are causing many in the financial community to question whether tax deferred saving remains a healthy long term strategy for employees.
It’s been well documented that effective corporate health wellness programs have produced positive results for employees and employers over the past twenty years. Probably the most studied, extensive and longest running program is Johnson and Johnson’s “Live for Life”(now called the “J&J Health Wellness Program”) which was rolled out in 1979. Incredibly, due to both financial incentives and a corporate culture that actively promotes healthy behavior, 90% of J&J’s US employees have participated. And considering this includes a pool of 45,000+ employees, the statistics derived from the study are significant.
Today, GuideSpark announced two new modules for its Benefits Learning Center solution. These modules automate and streamline New Hire Training and benefits communications for Open Enrollment. As companies continue to prioritize doing more with less, many employers are looking for more efficient and effective ways to deal with these resource-intensive processes.
A recent BusinessWeek article “Helping an Employee in a Personal Financial Crisis” had a number of eye-opening estimates about the effect of financial distress on employees and employers. The article sites the Personal Finance Employee Education Foundation estimating the cost of personal financial woes to corporations at $4.5 Billion annually and a Chicago consultant estimating a financially unstable worker can cost a company as much as $480 per month.
GuideSpark, Inc. unveiled its Web-hosted workplace financial education service, a comprehensive approach that helps employees make better use of their organization’s benefits and achieve financial security.
The GuideSpark Benefits and Open Enrollment Learning Center is designed to help employers grappling with how to effectively educate employees on workplace benefits. Engaging multimedia lessons provide in-depth and self-paced information about increasingly complex benefits offerings. GuideSpark provides anytime access to benefits education, and can be customized to support key HR events like open enrollment, new hire training and benefit program changes.
The company’s Financial Wellness Center helps employees avoid pervasive financial distractions that add stress, lower productivity and adversely affect health. GuideSpark experts point out that major employers are beginning to get the message: IBM, Pepsi Bottling Group, and Home Depot have already implemented financial education and planning programs for their employees.
