3 reasons why it's time to start a remote financial wellness program for your employees

The continued health and economic challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic have benefits sponsors rethinking how a virtual financial wellness program can help their companies cope with these stressful times.

It’s not surprising that most workers in our country remain concerned about their finances. A new survey by the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) found that more than four in five (84%) Americans said the pandemic is causing stress on their personal finances. While that number is down slightly from 88% at the start of the crisis, it shows that financial stress remains stubbornly high for many Americans.

The world received some very encouraging news on Nov. 11 when drug companies Pfizer and BioNTech announced that their vaccine candidate was found to be more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19. But it will take many months before a vaccine is widely distributed that will help bring an end to this crisis. And with COVID-19 cases rising across the U.S., many companies will require their employees to work from home for all or part of the work week.

Companies can help their employees navigate the stress caused by the pandemic by establishing a remote financial wellness program. Here are three reasons why it’s time go virtual with financial wellness:

1. Employees have adapted quickly to remote communication. The employee communications protocols put in place during the early days of statewide and local shelter-in-place mandates laid the groundwork for providing remote financial wellness services. Thanks to enhancements in technology, the “new normal” of securely and virtually interacting with employees is easier for benefits sponsors.

Better image and audio capabilities improved the quality of interactions between employees and financial wellness counselors – allowing better interpretation of each other’s facial expressions and body language. Secure document sharing also makes it easier for benefits sponsors to shift to internet-based communication from traditional communications channels (email, print materials).

2.  Virtual wellness offerings have improved. Now that employees are doing much more virtually, there is a lot of improvement in the platforms that we use for financial wellness. The clunkier, click-intensive systems have been replaced by interactive and efficient systems with live engagement options. Virtual wellness is just not what it used to be, much to the benefit of the participant.

When you look at how Americans interacted before the pandemic, in person was always better than virtual. But the pandemic forced us to go “virtual” for seemingly everything, which resulted in tech companies introducing sweeping improvements on the platforms being used.

Financial wellness is no different. The tools available now are light years beyond what they were. They allow employees to link information that gives them a full financial picture, helping them plan effectively for their future. And providers can add to these tools but providing virtual interactions and education by remote financial wellness counselors that is tailored to the participant.

3. It’s the right thing to do. A tailored financial plan that includes education and interaction with an advisor is essential to help employees directly address the challenges brought on by the pandemic, identify solutions to recover from economic setbacks, and take advantage of future opportunities.

The U.S. Treasury’s “U.S. National Strategy for Financial Literacy 2020” report, released in September, identified eight best practices to help improve the financial acumen of Americans. Each of these can easily be included in a virtual financial wellness program:

• Know the individuals and families to be served
• Provide actionable, relevant, and timely information
• Improve key financial skills
• Build on motivation
• Make it easy to make good decisions and follow through
• Raise standards for financial educators
• Provide ongoing support
• Evaluate for impact

Eventually, the economic disruption caused by the pandemic will fade. When implemented now, a remote financial wellness program will help your workers survive the current challenges and position them to thrive in 2021 and beyond.

Linde Murphy, CRCP, serves as managing director for Argent Retirement Plan Advisors, a Registered Investment Advisor with the SEC that specializes in providing fiduciary and investment advisory services to employer sponsored qualified and non-qualified retirement plans. Linde, who has more than a decade of experience in the financial services industry, works with corporations, nonprofits and municipalities to design high quality and cost-effective retirement plans. Prior to joining Argent, she was chief operating officer and chief compliance officer of M.E. Allison & Co., an investment banking firm specializing in municipal finance.

Please see important disclosure information at https://argentfinancial.com/argent-disclosures/