Employee Advisory Resource (EAR), an employee assistance programme (EAP) provider has entered into an exclusive partnership with PocketSmith, a budgeting software company, to provide an online personal finance management tool to help employees with budgeting and financial planning.
The new online tool is an interactive enhancement to EAR's suite of debt management services.
Through this partnership, EAR and PocketSmith seek to create more financial security by helping employees to forecast coming expenses and income. Using those predictions, employees are able to analyse the information in order to help set better goals, monitor cash flow, reduce debt and save money.
Instead of focusing on the past, the application helps users plan for the future and clearly illustrates the impact of financial decisions made. It does this through a visual calendar interface which simply and effectively communicates financial data.
EAR and PocketSmith also offer an interactive feature whereby EAR's debt specialists and counsellors can work with employees in real time to assist them in drawing up budgets, identifying potential problems and monitoring spending. These tools empower employees by helping them avoid serious financial problems and achieve long-term goals.
PocketSmith's intuitive interface helps employees budget in a short amount of time, reducing the emotional stress associated with prolonged financial strain.
Alan King, president and managing director at EAR, said: "The emotional toll of managing debt impacts employees at all levels, and increases the risk of illness and lower productivity.
"Offering employees access to debt management resources is a win-win situation that many companies are embracing. It empowers workers to be more focused at work, proactive with financial matters and to better manage their stress."
Key features of this new budgeting tool include:
- Interactive component allowing EAR debt specialists to assist users in real time with their PocketSmith accounts
