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Expand Your Wellness Programs to Include Financial Fitness

A powerful antidote for the economic stress felt by individuals right now is an employee financial wellness program.

Two years after the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic, people feel frazzled and fatigued. A poll completed in March 2022 by the American Psychological Association (APA) shows that Americans are stressed by rising prices, supply chain issues and global uncertainties. Today, it’s more critical than ever for employers to provide robust wellness programs.

Expand your vision of wellness to include finances

It’s a well-established fact that wellness programs focused on physical fitness, disease management, weight loss and smoking cessation help improve employee health and lower health care costs. But employees are more than physical beings. They’re psychological beings, too. The stress employees currently experience can significantly affect their health and productivity.

Employers concerned about comprehensive wellness must acknowledge what the APA poll found: stress about money is the highest recorded since 2015. The younger your employees, the more they say money, the economy and housing are a significant source of stress (82 percent of those ages 18-25 vs. 68 percent of those 44-57). 

Additionally, money stress is highest among Latino (75 percent) and black adults (67 percent). White adults aren’t very far behind with 63 percent reporting money stress, and 57 percent Asian adults report the same.

How to boost the financial fitness of your employees

When you look past the numbers, it’s clear that people are worried about the basics of survival. You don’t need to be a psychologist to understand that losing sleep about the cost of food and housing can have a negative effect on one’s ability to focus at work. One way some employers are working to alleviate this problem is by offering programs to boost employees’ financial fitness. 

Comprehensive financial wellness programs educate employees based on their existing understanding of how money works. For those new to money management, financial wellness programs start with the basics: budgeting, building savings and reducing debt. More advanced services cover asset building, homeownership and planning for retirement.

Effective financial wellness programs recognize that people have different learning styles and provide access in various formats. Group workshops, one-on-one coaching and online learning make it easy for employees to choose the method that works best for them. The programs go beyond financial literacy (knowing how money works) by helping participants apply what they learn to their personal finances.

Employees like financial wellness programs because they can select the services that they need right now. For example, one person can get help with managing student loan debt while another can get counseling about choosing a retirement date.

A financial wellness program is an effective tool to help people take control of their finances. Once most people start controlling money instead of letting it control them, their stress levels go down.

About the Author

Ann CallahanAnn Callahan is the Business Engagement Manager at Consumers Credit Union. She may be reached at 616-333-0981 or ann.callahan@consumerscu.org.

MMA LogoConsumers Credit Union is an MMA Basic Associate Member and has been an MMA member company since March 2022.