Employee financial wellbeing tops list of employer priorities: survey
Alight Solutions survey finds employers overwhelmingly view financial wellbeing as part of an overall whole-person approach to wellbeing that also includes physical, emotional and social aspects.
Financial wellbeing is a top focus for employers during the year ahead, as employees cope with the lingering impacts of COVID-19 disruptions.
Twenty-eight percent of 115 employers surveyed by Alight Solutions in its Hot Topics in Retirement and Financial Wellbeing 2021 study said addressing broad financial wellbeing is the most important aspect of employee behavior within their defined contribution plans that they need to address.
Helping participants understand retirement readiness was the second-highest priority followed by encouraging higher DC contribution rates.
As such, nearly 90 percent of those surveyed indicated they are likely to focus on financial wellbeing programs beyond retirement decisions during the coming year through plan features, planning resources, communication, mobile applications or online tools.
More than half of those surveyed (56 percent) said financial wellbeing programs have become more important over the past two years.
Employers are taking lessons learned from the pandemic to implement forward-looking procedures designed to help employees be better prepared for unforeseen circumstances and market downturns in the future, the report said. More than half of those surveyed said they have either fully implemented a financial wellbeing program or have one in the process of being implemented, up 35 percent from just two years ago.
Alight outlined four stages that people move through on their way to financial independence: security, foundation, growth and freedom.
While about half of employees fall into the security stage, which includes understanding income and expenses and managing debt, employers are more focused on the impact they can make in the foundation stage, which includes establishing savings goals and understanding investments and insurance. The growth stage encompasses maximizing asset growth and understanding investment vehicles, and the freedom stage includes estate planning and understanding social security options.
Most commonly, employers are addressing financial wellbeing through services, tools or educational campaigns around the basics of financial markets and simple investing strategies, as well as budgeting and financial planning.
Employers also have implemented or are considering implementing tools and services that address debt management, healthcare education and planning, prioritization of savings, assistance with saving for specific life stages, and assistance with post-retirement programs.
Employers are also interested in expanding into nontraditional benefits that seek to bolster financial wellbeing, according to the survey. The areas with the largest increase in interest since last year’s survey were creating budgets, saving for a child’s education and helping with student loans.
Employers have done their best to help employees remain focused on retirement during the pandemic, according to the report. Ninety-one percent of employers said they did not adjust their company match formula in 2020, and those that did make changes said they suspended their contribution rather than permanently reducing it. Nearly 100 percent of employers surveyed said they do not plan to make any changes to their 2021 match.
About half of employers added financial wellbeing tools and services in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most employers surveyed also indicated that they adopted some provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act that allowed workers to tap into retirement savings and delay repaying outstanding loans, according to Alight.
Employers also helped employees cope with the pandemic by increasing communication about retirement benefits or financial wellbeing, and easing loan provisions in their DC plans, waiving waiting periods and increasing the number of loans available, according to the report.
Employers overwhelmingly view financial wellbeing as part of an overall whole-person approach to wellbeing that also includes physical, emotional and social aspects.
Most employers surveyed said they offer financial wellbeing programs because they enhance the overall employee experience, but a significant percentage (84 percent) also said they offer financial wellbeing programs because it is the right thing to do. Financial wellbeing programs also help employers increase employee engagement, improve retirement statistics, differentiate from other employers, decrease employee time spent addressing financial issues, satisfy employees requests for them and decrease medical costs like disability and workers compensation, said the report.
However, implementing and maintaining financial wellness programs is not without challenges, primarily competing with other benefit priorities, which 88 percent of employers noted.
Budget concerns also limit the ability of employers to implement financial wellbeing programs, along with lack of internal resources to manage them and lack of leadership buy-in. Ten percent said they have experienced no hurdles in executing their financial wellbeing strategy.
Kristen Beckman is a freelance writer based in Colorado. She previously was a writer and editor for ALM’s Retirement Advisor magazine and LifeHealthPro online channel. She also was a reporter for Business Insurance magazine covering workers compensation topics.
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