High anxiety: 2/3 of employees are worse off financially than a year ago

Cost-of-living increases have hit everyone, causing anxiety among all employees. Female wage earners have been hit hard by recent inflationary trends – much harder than men across the board. But benefits plan members are eager to get help managing this mini-crisis, and expect plan sponsors to offer financial tools to help weather the storm.

That’s the big-picture conclusion from a recent survey of 500 employees who responded to questions about their financial status today compared to a year ago. The survey, “Breaking Down the Cost-of-Living Squeeze”, comes to us from Salary Finance, a benefits vendor that partners with employers to provide employee financial wellbeing benefits to plan members.

The results indicated that most plan members, regardless of age, gender, or salary level, are feeling the inflationary crunch to some extent. Most recognize that financial worries are undermining their mental health, and they bring their worries to the job, where the concerns manifest themselves in lower productivity and more absenteeism.

At least among those who participate in the survey, female and Hispanic workers are having more difficulty coping with the economic shift than white and African American employees.

Female employee respondents reported more financial concerns in all areas, including:

• While 66% overall said they struggle more this year financially than last year, 75% of women said they are struggling more compared to 59% of males.
• When asked about how much they have today in savings compared to a year ago, 72% overall had less in savings, with 81% of women reporting having less vs. 63% of males).
• 29% overall have completely drained their savings, with 40% of women reporting savings gone compared to 18% of men.

The study looked at the same questions for those making $100K or more, and again found women disproportionately affected.

Respondents who identified as Black demonstrated greater resilience to the economic tremor than did whites or Hispanics.

“The data show that Black employees are more resilient to the current financial squeeze despite similar numbers in financial wellness metrics compared to the general population,” the report stated. “While 35% of the general population worries about their finances over the next six months, only 18% of Black respondents do; 73% of Black employees are more confident about their financial futures over the next six months, compared to 49% of the general population. And 42% report their productivity at work to be unaffected by their current financial situation, compared to 35% of the general population.”

Gen-Xers and baby boomers were also more concerned about money this year than last year, compared to younger plan members. Their concerns centered around planning for retirement. They view the recent market instability and accompanying inflation as potentially blowing up their carefully-laid retirement plans.

The report opined on the results from women and from African Americans. Women continue to lag males in salaries at work, an historic gap that continues to affect their earning and spending power. African American employees, the report suggested, may be more resilient simply because they have never enjoyed the generational wealth that whites have. Citing a 2022 report by the Financial Health Network, Salary Finance said:

“Declines [in financial health] for some of these groups may be a reflection of their already greater financial health: Unlike factors such as inflation, which likely affected virtually all socioeconomic and demographic groups, historically advantaged groups were in a position to more acutely experience reductions in long-term savings. As such, those who owned investment accounts were directly exposed to the volatility in financial markets, which may have reduced their savings. Historically marginalized groups, on the other hand, may have never had savings large enough to incur comparable declines.”

Now that we know the scope of the problem, what can benefits advisors and plan sponsor/employers do about it/? The survey indicated plan members will accept help through their benefits package. But are current benefits appropriate? And if they are, do plan members know how to access them?

Salary Finance recommends three basic actions plan sponsors and advisors can take today to address plan members’ financial worries:

Assess employees’ financial wellness

This can be done by analyzing current data, asking such questions as: Have 401(k) opt-outs, loans, and contribution levels changed over the past year? Are employees participating in voluntary benefit programs at the same rate as last year? Have employee retention rates or NPS scores changed over the past year? Have you seen any feedback from exit interviews or other employee surveys mentioning financial stress? Then perhaps devise a new survey focused on financial well-being to gather new data.

Focus on supporting pockets of your population who need it most

The survey indicates women, Gen-Xers, Boomers, and Hispanics may need the most direct support. But just because the responses from African American workers showed unusual resilience doesn’t mean they don’t need support. Like women, these plan members still bear the burden of generational bias.

Provide tools to support managers and employees

This is more than specific benefits. It’s also about educating employees, about communicating effectively across four generations of workers, about being open year-round to guiding them through their benefits.

Advisors and sponsors need to constantly educate plan members about their existing benefits, how they can access them, and what sponsors can do to ensure their members that they are there to support their mental and physical well-being year-round.

Kaleana Quibell, vice president, Wellbeing & Partnerships, Sequoia, specializes in connecting plan members with their benefits. Her company offers a range of benefits consulting services to plan sponsors, including wellness programs. Her advice to sponsors and advisors for relieving employee anxiety:

• Emphasize simplified communications of the benefits that are included in the plan that can help them. Sequoia emphasizes storytelling to help plan members choose the options that are best for themselves and their families. “We give examples of three types of plan members who are at different points in their journey,” she says. “That way, people can relate their benefits to their own journey.” Multiple media types address the way different people receive information best, she adds.
• Emphasize that support for understanding and utilizing benefits is available year-round.“Most people think they can only learn about their benefits during open enrollment. That is the time when they choose their benefits – yes. But, try to reassure them that they can still get guidance during the entire year, whether it be to find an in-network provider, to get help with personal finances, to access mental health services–just knowing the support is there does alleviate that stress. Ongoing reminders of what’s included in your plan are so important,” she says. “People need to be reminded the other 11 months of the year that they have a strong plan supporting them.” Sequoia creates a “wellbeing benefits support calendar” with a monthly theme and reminders related to the theme. The reminders may be snail-mailed, emailed, pop up on an app, or sent via text – whatever works best for the specific plan member.
• Make sure employees can locate the benefit they are seeking, regardless of how the benefits are “stored” for the employee. Sequoia stores them by name and intention online or in the app. If a plan member does not recall the vendor’s product name, they can look it up by intention: Find a doctor, schedule a check-up, financial assistance, etc.

Related: Buy groceries or get medical care? Educating employees on benefits will help them do both

“Benefits education is a year-round, constant task,” she says. “Experiment with different avenues of communication. We encourage companies to start with training their managers on the solutions included in the plan. We are seeing a shift in people going to managers first and human resources afterwards, largely due to the impact of remote working. Your front line managers can support employees at a high level, especially on mental health and financial management matters.”