Important tip; don’t listen to drunk Uncle Joe when deciding on your (or your client’s) financial future.
The International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans recently polled its members, asking top industry leaders: What is the single largest influencer when it comes to your workers’ financial decisions?
Little surprise, 74 percent responded that employees are most influenced by family members and friends. With this in mind, the Foundation notes, employers are adapting their financial education efforts to better fit the needs of their workforce.
Based on the poll responses, the top two reasons organizations provide financial education programs are to ensure workers can securely retire and, secondly, to reduce financial distress so workers are more productive and engaged on the job. Nineteen percent of employers provide financial education simply because “it’s the right thing to do.”
Organizations have been getting more creative with financial education delivery methods, finds a recent International Foundation report, Financial Education for Today’s Workforce: 2016 Survey Results. Two-thirds of employers surveyed offer financial education, and they are finding ways to reach those most influential to their employees.
For example, that same report found 40% of employers provide financial education to spouses and partners. In addition, 41% provide financial education opportunities before or after normal working time, and 20% offer education on the weekends so spouses and partners can attend.
Noting that direct communications coming from the organization itself often fall flat, another International Foundation report, Benefits Communication Survey Results, found that 63% of employers are leveraging word-of-mouth communication through workplace “champions” so employees hear about benefits (like financial education) from a more impactful influence, their peers.
“In our focus groups, surveys and case study work, we’ve seen the importance of workplace champions,” Julie Stich, research director at the International Foundation, said in a statement. “Champions are passionate about the benefit in question—in this case, financial education. Often they’ll embrace the education they receive from their employer and pursue more information on their own. They’ll adopt the benefit in their own life and eagerly talk with their co-workers about it as well. Their enthusiasm, knowledge and ‘peer’ status grabs their co-workers’ attention and trust.”
Stich said that the International Foundation’s Benefits Communication report showed that, among employers using a champion approach, 75 percent reported success with this method.
By influencing a new audience, employers are taking that extra step to secure a successful financial future for their employees.
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
