How advisors measure the success of financial wellness programs
Here are several ways that advisors and companies assess financial wellness program success.
Many employers are implementing financial wellness programs in the new year to help employees address the fallout from the pandemic. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau estimates that employers typically see an ROI of $3 for every $1 invested in a financial well-being program
However, regardless of how well a program is designed, it will be effective only if employees are actively engaged. One strategy that the most committed employers use to drive engagement is a rewards or points program, according to a research report from the Retirement Advisor Council.
Leading advisors surveyed say that, on average, 19 percent of their clients with a financial wellness program use a rewards or points program to stimulate participant engagement.
Successful plan advisors measure employee engagement in a variety of ways. Some rely on feedback and updates from the plan sponsor, perhaps by studying the results of employer surveys.
Others monitor participant behavior, tracking attendance at meetings and the frequency of inbound calls to gauge the number of participants who take steps to implement a plan with the help of a financial wellness counselor.
Still others rely on hard plan metrics when assessing efficacy or ROI, looking to engagement metrics or outcome metrics as indicators of program success. These metrics typically include changes in participation and deferral rates to loan payoffs, emergency savings increases and the increased use of managed accounts or changes in asset allocation. The most commonly used employee engagement metrics are:
- Accessing a financial wellness portal, 80 percent
- Entering any data in the portal, 75 percent
- Using any data in a service or product, 70 percent
- Attending an education session, 70 percent
- Obtaining a personalized assessment, 70 percent
- Employee satisfaction with the program, 70 percent
“One of the most relied-upon employee engagement metrics is the percentage of employees who access a financial wellness portal,” the report said.
“Among those who access the portal, what percent enter any data? How many utilize any of the available products or services or attend a group education session? What percent obtain a personalized assessment of their own financial wellness? How do they rate their satisfaction with the program? How many seek a meeting with a financial wellness advisor?”
The council has developed a proposed model for financial wellness program engagement metrics that is available at the Retirement Advisor Council site.
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