Nevin's Data "Points"

 The ROI for financial wellness has always been elusive—but a new survey suggests that it might not matter. Asked “Why are you creating or expanding your financial wellbeing program?”, respondents to Alight’s 17th edition of Hot Topics in Retirement & Financial Wellbeing  said that not only was financial wellness their top priority, more than half (56%) said that the importance of financial wellbeing has increased at their organization over the last two years, and none said the focused has decreased.  But—asked why they were creating or expanding their financial wellbeing program, the respondents largely ignored the traditional ROI metrics. The most common answer was nothing more concrete than to “enhance the overall employee experience (85%), and right behind that was the simple proposition that “we believe it is the right thing to do (84%). Even HR’s traditional favorite—“increase employee engagement”—at 72%—was well behind those arguably subjective gau...

Financial wellness – it remains a hot topic among advisors – but among plan sponsors? For all the coverage that the subject engenders – and it’s considerable in this space – it’s not unusual to find awareness gaps among plan sponsors, with perspectives ranging from ignorance to ambivalence to downright skepticism. About a year ago, the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) conducted a survey  of 250 large employers. At the time, the report claimed that while many employers were interested in offering financial wellness programs to their employees, there didn’t appear to be a consensus on the approach. So, what’s changed in in the past year? Well, as it turns out, not much. Once again EBRI surveyed  large plan sponsors – this time in June 2019, the online survey of 248 full-time benefits decision-makers from companies with at least 500 employees (17% had more than 10,000). Last year’s survey canvassed employers with an “expressed interest in financ...

For all the buzz around financial wellness, a new survey suggests there is a long way to go. These days there’s not much argument against the premise behind pursuing financial wellness. The notion is that bad financial health contributes to (and/or causes) a bevy of workplace woes: stress, which can lead to things like lower productivity; bad health and higher absenteeism; and even a greater inclination toward workplace theft, not to mention deferred retirements by workers who tend to be higher paid and have higher health care costs. But if there is little argument that financial wellness is a worthwhile goal for workers – and one worth supporting by employers – the recent Financial Wellbeing Employer Survey from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) suggests that we have a ways to go. Here are some key takeaways from that survey of 250 employers: 1. HR is leading the charge. The most commonly cited primary champion for financial wellness was Human R...

Several years back the concept of “wellness” crept into benefits planning. More recently, HR’s affinity for that wellness concept has been expanded upon by the concept of financial wellness. But as appealing as the notion is, a number of key questions linger. With regard to wellness generally, the notion was simple: Rather than just treating the symptoms of poor health with insurance-funded trips to the doctor (or the hospital) after the damage was done, we’d get ahead of things by emphasizing healthy habit steps (smoking cessation, weight loss, etc.) programs that would reduce doctor bills (and insurance premiums). As regards financial wellness, the notion is that bad financial health contributes to (and/or causes) a bevy of woes: stress, which can lead to things like lower productivity, bad health and higher absenteeism, and even a greater inclination toward workplace theft, not to mention deferred retirements by workers who tend to be higher salaried and who have higher health...