A new survey finds that employees who had a wellness program at work had higher satisfaction with their benefits package – and if they had financial wellness, even higher.
The survey of 554 employers by Four Seasons Financial Education found that average satisfaction increased by nearly 40% when comparing satisfaction ratings of workers with no wellness program to those with wellness that included financial wellness (5.49 versus 7.66 on a scale of 1 to 10). St. Louis-based Four Seasons offers financial wellness programs.
While retirement benefits were deemed the most difficult employee benefit to understand overall (39% found the difficult to understand), the number of respondents who said they understood the plan’s investment options “extremely well” increased from 14% to 22% among those who had a financial wellness benefit. Other benefits considered were health insurance (26% found difficult to understand), HSA (20%), FSA (20%), disability insurance (17%), dental/vision (14%), and life insurance (13%).
Top Financial Goals
Retirement also topped the list of most important financial goals (as it did in the organization’s 2015 survey), cited by 35%, just ahead of budgeting and debt (33%), with overall financial planning third (22%). However, while men cited retirement as their top financial goal (36.7%), women more often cited budgeting and debt (36.5% versus 28.2% for men).
The top financial goals by age group were:
- Age 18-29: budgeting and debt (42%) (only 7.6% of this group consider retirement their top financial goal)
- Age 30-44: budgeting and debt (38%)
- Age 45-59: retirement (48%)
- Over age 59: retirement (70%)
Asked what their employer could do to help them with their retirement goals, access to one-on-one guidance with a professional was the most cited, at 48%. Workers aged 30-44 were most likely to suggest this option (53%). Other suggestions included:
- more retirement education (38%);
- a customized retirement plan (37%);
- calculators and tools (23%); and
- inclusion of spouse/partner in retirement education (19%).
