Healthy, Wealthy and Wise

Answer: The relationship between health and wealth is more than a Benjamin Franklin quote. The correlation between health and financial wellness can have benefits for your employees and your business. Providing education and guidance to employees about saving and investing for retirement, preparing for major life changes along the way can have a substantial impact on both your and your employees’ health. Here’s why.

Stress effects everything

When you or your employees are stressed, it influences and impacts productivity, focus, health, and overall well-being, and not in a good way. In a recent study by Digital HR Tech, 57% of employees were shown to be stressed about finances, with long-term saving and investing for the future key areas of concern. There’s a direct link to high financial stress and physical ailments like headaches, ulcers, depression, and other issues. There’s also the potential for a feedback loop to begin when financial stress diminishes overall physical health, and then poor physical health increases financial stress because medical expenses and potentially hurt productivity at work. 

Living well, longer

It’s rather obvious, but worth stating that the healthier you are, the longer you can expect to live. It’s the optimal outcome of physical wellness, but this eventuality does require paying extra attention to long-term savings goals and retirement planning. Your employees may not be thinking about this but showing them that you are aware and providing retirement planning options demonstrates a commitment to their lives as a whole.

Unlock their potential

Reducing financial stress by providing retirement planning resources, financial wellness programs, and support when buying a house or making major life changes can pay off overall. Helping younger staff manage or pay off student debt can play a pivotal role in where they choose to work. Employees who feel they are supported tend to be more loyal and are likely to excel and outperform those with worries and concerns around these issues. So how can you provide all this when you may not have the knowledge or the time?

Make a road map

Start by understanding the local landscape and study your employee demographics. What financial milestones might they be pursuing at their stage of life? Consider sending out a short, anonymous survey to find out what goals they might like help with.

Create a toolbox

What tools do you have at your disposal to help employees with their financial lives and well-being? From retirement plans to special relationships with a bank for mortgages, equity compensation, health savings accounts, bonuses, discounts at local businesses or flextime, these all fall under the financial wellness umbrella.

According to CNBC, with 65% of employees surveyed stated they could not cover six months’ expenses if income were lost, you may want to find out if goal setting, budgeting and other financial basics would be a key benefit. Collaborate with your trusted CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® Professional to see if they can set up a financial wellness seminar or workshop series at your workplace. Be creative and try to map what you are able to provide in response to what your employees have identified as important to them. As an example, in addition to healthcare and resources for childcare, our firm offers pet insurance in response to employee requests. 

Next steps

1. Reach out to your employees one on one, or through a survey to find out what parts of the financial picture they’d like to learn about. 

2. Talk to your advisor about the possibility of a financial wellness seminar virtually or at your office. 

3. Investigate what a financial wellness program could look like and what would  fit your business. 

Stay focused and plan accordingly for you, your employees, and your business.