Employees are less likely today to be embarrassed to ask for financial guidance or advice. In the PwC survey, only 33 percent indicated they would be embarrassed to seek such advice, compared to 42 percent in 2019. Personalizing financial wellness benefits to employees' life and career stages is among the employer strategies the PwC report suggests.
Offering financial resources and mentoring is something Asim Hafeez, owner and operator of Empower Energy Solutions in Darien, Conn., does on an informal basis for his 35 full-time employees.
Hafeez brings in speakers to talk on various financial topics and points workers to a variety of books, courses and other resources. The entrepreneur achieved financial independence—what he calls "job-optional status"—in his 20s. He often serves as a sounding board for employees who are weighing various financial decisions, and helps them break down large financial aims into bite-size goals. A recurring topic employees raise with him is how they can retire early.
"People have money coming in, but they need to play good defense with what they have," Hafeez said. That includes learning how to budget; setting small, realistic goals they can build upon; and eschewing consumerism.
The financial strain employees experience is "almost always because of [poor] financial habits and tendencies," Hafeez pointed out. His organization celebrates employees' financial wins, he added, whether it's when someone buys their first house or
contributes the allowable maximum to their Roth individual retirement account for the sixth consecutive year.
Financial Responsibility Self-Care
Financial coaching and mentoring practices have emerged over the last 10 years, said Craig Rubino, head of participant insights, financial wellness and learning at Morgan Stanley at Work.
More recently, though, employers have been taking into account how financial stress—such as worries over a spouse's unemployment, managing retirement accounts or uneasiness over a potential recession—negatively affects workers' personal and work lives.
"That level of stress is what is driving the need for us to focus on financial responsibility self-care," Rubino said. "Living within tight budgets can lead to feelings of deprivation. It can take a toll on [workers'] well-being and productivity."
A third-party finance coach can help an individual talk to family members about reducing unnecessary expenses, aid in creating a budget, and insure the employee is taking advantage of cost-cutting benefits such as employee discounts, transit benefits or a health savings account.
There are four main topics a financial coach or counselor can address, Rubino said:
- The individual's budget.
- Ways to reduce expenses.
- Tools that best fit an individual's financial needs—whether a mobile app, online tracking tools or traditional spreadsheets—and help in developing a habit of using those tools.
- Tools to manage self-care so that employees can approach their finances with more mindfulness and reduced stress.
Companies that are most successful with financial counseling benefits listen to their employees, Rubino said. One approach is survey employees to understand key financial stressors and needs, and then use the data to prioritize the benefits employees most want.
Financial stressors differ among some demographic groups, MetLife found. Older employees and men were more likely to cite insufficient retirement savings as top financial stressors. For women, top concerns were about their ability to save for a major purchase such as a car, college or house, and being able to cover out-of-pocket medical expenses such as premiums, deductibles and co-pays that have increased over last year.
Other SHRM Resources:
Employers Step Up with Emergency Savings Accounts,
SHRM Online, July 2023.
As Employees Prioritize Financial Benefits, Some Employers Cut Back,
SHRM Online, May 2023.