For many, this can be a stressful time of year, especially as things haven’t totally righted themselves after the pandemic. Autumn can bring about new financial obligations such as college tuition or mortgage payments on a new home. For parents of school-age children, there is little quiet as the pace of life picks up quickly with kids’ return to school sports and other activities.

And yet many important decisions lie ahead for your employees:

• Do we have the right health coverage option to fit our needs?
• Does a flexible spending account (FSA) or health savings account (HSA) make sense this year?
• Should savings shift to cover monthly expenses or, towards retirement, college, etc.?

Support Employees with Workplace Education

As you know, workplace education can be an invaluable tool. And not just to the benefit of employees. Research has shown that the stress of financially burdened employees negatively impacts organizations. According to PwC’s 2022 Employee Financial Wellness Survey, employees’ trouble with finances can “directly impact an employer’s bottom line in key areas like productivity, retention, attendance and overall engagement.”¹

Employees’ decisions about money and how to best care for their families weigh heavily on your workforce, especially at this time of year. What can employers do?

Employee Benefit News offers the following tactics for reaching and engaging employees:

• Communication from the top down acknowledging that post-pandemic, many families are still figuring out the “new normal”;
• Benefits fairs and educational webinars; and
• Contests and other incentives for participation²

Sending out a short survey can be beneficial in getting a better understanding of what type of information and benefits your employees need most. Do they know about the health and financial education benefits available under their employee benefit plan? Do they actually understand their retirement plan and how to contribute? Do they need help taking charge of their finances? It’s important to create and communicate an action plan based on survey results so that your employees feel heard.

Connecting Employees with Trusted Financial Resources

On the topic of financial literacy, one survey found employees are 24 percent more likely to feel connected with their employer if offered financial education benefits in the workplace while 20 percent are consequently less likely to feel anxiety about finances. Yet employees don’t always know what financial benefits are offered or how they work.³

When sharing important information about financial benefit offerings, it may be equally important to help employees better understand the psychology behind financial decision making, behaviors, our relationship with money, and how emotions and family history play an integral part. This may be the key to long-term financial wellness, according to commentary in a recent BenefitsPro article.⁴

Health Plan Reminders

In the area of health coverage, you’ll want to remind employees about some important considerations that may impact which health coverage option they choose. These include:

• Financial circumstances
• Changes to family structure and number of dependents (due to marriage, birth, adoption, or aging out at age 26)
• Anticipated need for increased medical care compared to the prior year
• Interest in taking advantage of an FSA or HSA

Relatedly, be sure to share the the differences between FSAs and HSAs with your employees, if your organization offers these benefits. As you know, both are designed to help pay for medical expenses and offer tax advantages. However, there are some key differences: you must qualify for an HSA by choosing an appropriate high-deductible health plan, and HSAs roll over and FSAs do not. Portico offers both traditional and high-deductible health plans.

At this time of year, it’s important to acknowledge that there can be a lot going on for your employees beyond caring for the clients they serve and keeping facilities in order. Take time to get to know what they need most in their benefits and where they’re lacking in information and knowledge.

¹2022 PwC Employee Financial Wellness Survey, Retrieved June 14, 2022 from https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/consulting/business-transformation/library/employee-financial-wellness-survey.html

²Krystal Barker Buissereth, Making the Back to School Season a Time for Benefits Education, Employee Benefit News, Retrieved June 17, 2022 from https://www.benefitnews.com/opinion/making-the-back-to-school-season-a-time-for-benefits-education

³Katie Kuehner-Hebert, Helping Employees Improve Financial Skills Can Pay Off, BenefitsPRO, Retrieved June 17, 2022 from https://www.benefitspro.com/2022/05/31/helping-employees-improve-financial-skills-can-pay-off/

⁴Kris Alban, Why Understanding Financial Behavior is Critical to Achieving Long-Term Financial Wellness, BenefitsPRO, Retrieved June 17, 2022 from https://www.benefitspro.com/2022/05/31/why-understanding-financial-behavior-is-critical-to-achieving-long-term-financial-wellness/?slreturn=20220516151903