Meeting the needs of a is a challenge for employers, especially when they are on a budget. The more impact a single benefit can make, the better.
This is especially true for , an ongoing necessity as employees continue to struggle with everything from paying bills to . Fintech company Chime is aiming to help meet employees where they are with multi-tiered financial support, including early wage access, a high-yield savings account option and credit-building resources. Whether someone is in the early stages of learning how to budget or feeling very financially secure, there are options to help them keep moving in a positive direction within the same platform.
"Financial health still persists as top of mind for employers," says Jason Lee, who serves as the company's chief of Chime Enterprise. "The economy is still very inflated, and wage growth hasn't kept up with that, so it's hard to get employees to feel like they're being paid adequately. So how do we attack this problem? If you help them save and help them budget, they start to feel like they are making enough."
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Data from PwC shows that nearly three quarters of employees look to their employers for financial support such as direct assistance with emergencies, education and decision making. Meanwhile, companies are looking to reduce the amount of offerings they provide in order to cut costs and more efficiently track engagement. For both groups, the advantages of a consolidated resource have never been more apparent.
"Right now, every CEO is asking every CPO or CHRO to do more with less," says Lee. "In the last several years, things have been what I call de-platformed, meaning everything's been broken down into point solutions, and that's in large part because during the labor crunch, everyone was saying, 'Let me just go grab the latest and shiniest tool out there.' But the labor market is now receding a little bit, so folks are saying, 'I can take a breath. I really need to do this the right way. I don't need eight vendors, I need one."
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By adopting a more modern, multipronged solution, employers can also expect to see a higher adoption rate from employees, especially younger generations who expect a more tech-friendly approach to employee benefits. Leaders planning which financial wellness offerings to use should also keep in mind that, though employees place this high on their list of wants, money is still a very personal matter, and the more privacy they feel they have, the better.
"There still is profound dissatisfaction with the solutions out there to help people," he says. "Money is a very touchy subject, and the idea of sticking 100 fast food workers into a VHS beta tape seminar about savings and budgeting isn't cutting it. And employers are frustrated, [because they] want to help, they know helping employees is good for business, but a lot of the tooling is very fragmented, and it's just candidly ineffective."
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When employers succeed in finding a solution that gives employees the chance to have long-term financial peace of mind, this helps change people's behaviors with money, and how they view their compensation. Businesses then reap benefits such as better retention rates and engagement.
"All of a sudden, [employees] have technology that enables them to pay their bills on time," says Lee. "Someone else might save a little easier and a little bit more effectively. We've got some really cool tools for that. Now someone says, 'Wait a minute, I've been working here for six months, and I actually have savings for the first time ever. I feel like I'm getting paid what I'm worth.'"