It's been a long day hear at Green Retirement, Inc. so I thought I would try to settle my mind by reading the JPM 2024 plan sponsor survey results. The topic of financial wellness caught my eye. 7 out of 10 plan sponsors either offer or are planning to offer a financial wellness program. 8 out of 10 surveyed participants feel financial wellness is an important benefit.
My struggle with financial wellness has been one of cost, return, and relevancy. Financial wellness programs can be challenging to define, and what different people and different organizations consider a financial wellness benefit can vary considerably. Plan sponsors and participants, however, are clearly thinking more about these types of benefits and what they can mean to both employees’ and companies’ overall fiscal health. Indeed, the connection among overall employee financial and personal wellness, productivity and workforce sentiment has become even more apparent through recent workplace trends, such as the Great Resignation, “quiet quitting” and the struggle to find talent.
So if we can agree the concept is sound and helpful, then how might we approach this? I have looked into a variety of programs. Should it be online learning as in short videos? One employee told me I should do TikTok videos on financial topics. The only trouble with that is the disclosure I have to read up front. Depending on the subject matter, I might take up 15 seconds in a minute to a minute and a half video rattling off required disclosure!
I am also critical of how I look on video. Should I invest in ring lights and a whole studio set-up? Better to leave it to the professionals! And yet, I found numerous programs that were loathe to speak to participants. Go figure?! And what do we make of those folks who want to read something as opposed to watching a video? How do you make the topic engaging?
And finally, I struggled with relevancy. As I watched some of the demos of the programs, I thought that some were too basic. Others were extremely generic. How do you find ones that hit home with your audience? It is not an easy issue to wrestle with.
I can't say I have a perfect solution but my attempt is my First Friday 401k series. I polled my employees and plan sponsors on what topics they would like to have presented. What financial challenges are they facing? From there, I went out and sourced relevant speakers on the various topics. To date, we've had an in-depth talk on Roth retirement plans, estate planning, Medicare, fidelity bond insurance, student loan forgiveness, and a lively discussion on long-term care insurance. I was thrilled to see 50 participants signed up for one of the talks.
My speakers all appear free of charge. There are no referral fees given or received. If they do a good job in sparking interest, the plan sponsors and employees may have offline follow-up conversations. That is all well and good by me. I am looking for happy employees and plan sponsors.
All talks are run by my Home Office first so any needed disclosure can be said. These sessions are recorded and are at a level that someone can listen to them on replay or even as a background soundtrack. The point is to engage the audience.
One size does not fit all in financial wellness programs. The trick is to find an approach that works for your client plans. It may be that one of the prepackaged programs works for you. I seem to have found a free solution that allows seasoned industry veterans provide actionable information. Isn't that the purpose of financial wellness?