Employee concerns about personal finances are highlighting the need to provide clients with benefits packages specifically tailored to the composition of their workforce.
Industry professionals are taking note of new research: This year 76 per cent of companies are looking to expand focus on financial well-being.
For instance, the baby boomer generation is primarily concerned with financial counseling and receiving legal assistance. Generation X/younger boomers are looking for medical supplements to be provided, along with financial counseling and elderly care provisions. Generation X is more concerned with tuition assistance, childcare and financial planning. Generation Y’s focuses are financial education and tuition assistance.
A common misconception by employers is they should not get involved in employees personal lives, but data shows more and more personal financial issues are spilling-over into the workplace.
Approximately 44 percent of employees worry about finances during work, while 33 percent are spending an average of 1.7 hours at work dealing with personal finance issues.
“According to a recent PwC Financial Wellness survey, one in three employees are distracted at work due to financial stress. And sadly, 4 in 10 Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck, and almost half describe their financial situation as fair or poor,” said Elizabeth Halkos, Chief Revenue Office for Purchasing Power in a recent webcast.
Based on calculations from data in the National Foundation for Credit Counseling 2013 Financial Literacy Survey and the 2013 Harris Poll, 28 per cent of employees have trouble meeting monthly expenses. Moreover, 44 percent don’t have at least $2,000 in emergency savings, 49 per cent haven’t been able to make major purchases in the past year for items they need, and 25 percent have borrowed from their retirement savings to meet their immediate financial needs.
Even worse, approximately 49 per cent of employees are ‘somewhat likely’ to look for new jobs, citing financial concerns as a primary factor.
Halkos suggested a range of strategies for communicating the value of voluntary benefits such as emphasizing positives other than money, using personal communication and multiple channels (i.e. group meetings, seminars, email, mail, etc.).
