Plan your workplace financial wellness program

Focus groups are small, diverse groups of employees that you bring together to share their thoughts and opinions. 

Benefits:

• Focus groups allow participants to exchange opinions and expand on each other’s ideas
• You can invite volunteers from different parts of the organization to ensure the group represents your workforce

Things to consider:

• Employees may be unwilling to raise sensitive financial issues in front of their colleagues
• Offering a participation incentive can make it easier to get volunteers
• More outspoken participants can sometimes take over the group and sway opinions
• Using an outside facilitator to summarize findings (without attributing them to individuals) can help ensure greater confidentiality
• Because it is an in-person group session, it cannot be completely anonymous
• It can be difficult to organize if employees are at multiple locations, work off-site or do shift work

When putting together focus groups, consider:

How to generate topics of interest

Open-ended questions such as, “What financial education topics would you be interested in learning about?” and/or asking for opinions on a list of proposed topics can spark discussion.

Format

Understanding employees’ preferred format for delivery of financial education (in-person group workshops, webinars, other online methods, like self-paced programs, etc.) can increase participation.

Time of day

Find out when most employees would prefer to participate in the program (lunch and learn sessions, during work, after work).

Feedback on current financial education

If you already offer financial education, ask employees what is working about your program and what is not.

Feedback on why they would not participate in a financial wellness program

This could help you avoid pitfalls and build a plan to avoid these obstacles.

Feedback on the role they think their employer should play

This can help you understand employee expectations relating to your program.

An employee survey is an effective way to get input on employees’ needs and preferences.

Benefits:

• Can be anonymous and confidential
• Can be widely distributed, especially across multiple geographic locations
• Employees can answer at a time that is convenient to them
• There are many free survey apps that make surveys easy to implement

Things to consider:

• Because participation is voluntary, the results may not represent the entire workforce
• Surveys and focus groups can complement each other. You can do a focus group first to fine-tune survey questions. Alternatively, you can do the survey first and then use focus groups to get further details and explore interesting or unexpected results

Possible employee survey topics include:

Current state of financial well-being

Use this information to understand employees’ levels of financial stress, confidence making financial decisions, and current financial challenges.

Financial goals

Have employees rank the importance of various financial goals. Examples could include paying off credit cards, buying a house, saving for a child’s education or saving for retirement.

Life events

Have employees select from a list of life events that may be relevant to them in the next 5 years, such as living as a couple, buying a home, starting a family or caring for an ill or disabled family member.

Topics of interest

Get employees to rank topics of interest or suggest new ones.

Demographic questions

Use the results to group data by profiles. For example, use age ranges to put respondents in groups such as early career (millennials, generation Y), mid-career (generation X) and late career (baby boomers). Be aware that age alone may not predict people’s financial needs.

Format

Ask employees about their preferred format for financial education delivery (in-person group seminars, webinars or other online methods, like self-paced programs, etc.).

Time of day

Ask employees about their preferred time of day to hold the program (lunch and learn sessions, during work hours, after work).

Not sure where to start? Use these sample survey questions to help build your employee needs survey.

Lack of time, money and other resources is often a concern when proposing new projects. Possible strategies to overcome this include justifying the need for more resources or minimizing the resources required.

To justify the need for a larger budget and more resources, consider the following:

• Focus on and highlight the benefits of workplace financial well-being. Talk about how it will reduce financial stress, make employees happier and more productive, and lead to a positive return on investment
• Outline the cost of doing nothing. Show how employee financial stress causes a significant loss of workplace productivity and impacts the organization’s bottom line

Use information from the section on Why your employees’ financial well-being matters? to help make these arguments.

Even if you do not have a lot of resources to invest in a financial wellness program, you can still do something. Consider these strategies to minimize the cost or complexity:

Start off small and build gradually

You could start your financial wellness program with just a few initiatives. This could be in the form of a pilot project. Build up your program over time, allowing employee feedback to inform the next steps. Use the resources that you currently have and build additional money and resources into your plan over time.

Use free resources

If your organization has a limited budget, there are some free sources of off-the-shelf financial wellness programs and resources you can use see the Financial wellness resources for employers section for more information.

Leverage your existing vendors

If applicable, use financial wellness programs offered by your employee assistance program (EAP), payroll provider, pension plan or benefits provider. Keep in mind that there may be additional fees for this. If you are a member of a professional association, the association may have financial wellness resources that can help you. Make sure the information is objective and unbiased.

Hire outside help

If you have the financial means but not the time or resources, consider hiring a third-party vendor. There are companies or consultants that offer employee financial wellness programs or that can guide you through the process. Make sure the information provided is objective and unbiased.

Some organizations may be concerned that they will invest in a program, but employees won’t participate. Minimize this risk by:

• Conducting an employee needs assessment to be sure you understand the level of interest and needs of your employees. This will help you plan a strategy and develop content that is relevant to their life stages and life events. Employees will be more likely to take advantage of and appreciate the financial wellness program
• Choosing a mix of delivery channels (online, in-person, paper, etc.) that engages employees and caters to their preferences. Focus on providing a positive employee experience. Make information easy to find, access and understand
• Promoting your program effectively. Programs can fail if employees don’t know about them. Use a variety of methods to promote the program and increase awareness and interest among employees
• Offering incentives, like rewards or games, to encourage your employees to participate

Some studies have found that in-person, facilitated sessions during working hours are among the most popular for workplace financial education. However, that may not be the best approach for all organizations. If employees aren’t all located in one place or if they work shifts, getting people together at a common break time in a common place may not work.

There are many ways to make sure that the program is inclusive and accessible to all employees, regardless of location or work hours. To overcome logistical challenges, consider:

• offering online, self-guided programs that employees can work on when it’s most convenient to them
• either scheduling in-person sessions at multiple locations, with the facilitator going to each one, or using webinars that allow employees to be in multiple locations and access the facilitator on-screen
• addressing shift work by offering sessions at a time when shifts overlap

Having the support of senior management is critical to a successful program. Develop the business case for your workplace financial wellness program to sell the idea to decision makers. Make sure that it demonstrates the benefits to both your employees and the organization and that it highlights the return on investment. Use the findings from your employee assessment and organizational assessment. Supplement this with external research to show why your organization needs a financial wellness program. Engage senior management as participants and champions of the program.

If you think you may have trouble getting buy-in from management due to a lack of resources, propose starting small with a pilot project or propose other ways to minimize the costs.

Make sure the resources, materials and vendors you use are not offering advice. They should provide unbiased, objective content that helps participants strengthen their knowledge, skills and confidence when making financial decisions. Include disclaimers that clearly explain that the objective of the program is to educate, not to sell or provide advice.