Financial anxiety is on the mind of everyone these days. From inflation and global market disruptions to anxiety about retirement funds and financial scams, people are on a razor’s edge. Even long-time financial institutions don’t feel safe.
This anxiety isn’t an issue for people in one or two countries or just a region either. Globally, nearly half of employees feel anxious about their finances. Our new global study of over 3,000 global respondents across 46 countries and six continents shows that between 2022 and 2023, the number of people surveyed who want their employers to offer financial education benefits and tools rose dramatically, from 26% to 42%.
Financial education is no longer just a nice to have for employers, it’s a must. It’s also a business imperative for companies that want to encourage better retention and wellbeing in these challenging times.
Our study uncovered a number of reasons why organizations need to build a case for effective, personalized, and unbiased financial education for their workforce.
Boosting employee commitment
As unemployment remains low in many regions, companies need employees as much as employees need them. More than half of the people we surveyed globally said that financial wellbeing programs boost their commitment to their employer and 70% say having diverse benefits helps build the employee-employer relationship. Better financial education programs are key to showing employees that the commitment is mutual.
Understanding key benefits
As employees grapple with financial anxiety, they need to understand the impact that existing benefits can have in meeting their needs — both today and in the future. Employees who receive financial education have a 34% stronger understanding of their employee benefits and 41% have increased their retirement savings. Employees who feel more secure in their financial future are better able to cope with challenging economic conditions.
Improving employee wellbeing
Anxiousness about finances can lead employees to feel helpless or overcome by uncertainty. Our research found that employees in financial wellbeing programs are 81% less likely to feel overwhelmed by debt and 66% more hopeful about their finances. Half of people were also more likely to be making progress toward their financial goals.
But there’s a gap today
Employees and employers alike recognize the value of financial education but there’s a catch. While 82% of HR and benefits leaders agree education is very important to financial wellbeing strategies, only 20% currently offer educational resources.
That makes the tools that boost employee commitment, benefits understanding, and wellbeing relatively rare based on the critical needs people have today. That has to change.
Financial wellbeing is now the whole organization’s responsibility
People can’t turn off anxieties about their financial situation when they go to work and organizations can’t hope to address these challenges with siloed approaches of the past. A global problem requires a global solution, one that unites all the critical stakeholders in the organization to deliver effective financial wellbeing to people, no matter where they are.
We encourage you to download our free research report, take a deeper look at the challenges the global workforce is facing, and understand what effective solutions deliver for organizations and their people.
