Healthy, wealthy and wise

The connection between financial wellness and health can have benefits for your employees and your business.

The connection between health and wealth is more than a Benjamin Franklin quote. It turns out that saving and investing for retirement, preparing for major life changes, and providing financial guidance and education along the way can have a substantial impact on both your and your employees’ health. Here’s why.

Stress impacts everything

When you or your employees are stressed, productivity, focus, health and overall well-being can suffer. In a recent study, 57% of employees were shown to be stressed about finances, with long-term saving and investing for the future key areas of concern. And there’s a direct link to high financial stress and physical ailments like headaches, ulcers, depression and other issues. There’s also a potential for a feedback loop to occur – with financial stress driving down overall physical health, and poor physical health increasing financial stress with medical expenses and potentially hurting productivity at work.

Living well, longer

Generally speaking, the healthier you are, the longer you can expect to live. It’s an optimal outcome of physical wellness, but it does require extra attention to long-term savings and retirement planning. Your employees may not be thinking about this, but showing them that you are and providing retirement planning options demonstrates a commitment to their lives as a whole.

Unlock their potential

Reducing financial stress by providing retirement planning, financial wellness programs, and support when buying a house or making major life changes can pay off in the long run.

Helping younger staff manage or pay off student debt can play a pivotal role in where they choose to work. Employees who feel they are supported tend to be more loyal – and outperform.

So how can you provide all this when you may not have the knowledge or the time?

Make a road map

Start by understanding the landscape and study your employee demographics. What financial milestones might they be pursuing at their stage of life? Consider sending out a short, anonymous survey to find out what goals they might like help with.

Create a toolbox

What tools do you have at your disposal to help employees with their financial lives and well-being? From retirement plans to special relationships with a bank for mortgages, equity compensation, health savings accounts, bonuses or maybe even discounts at local businesses – these all fall under the financial wellness umbrella.

With 65% of employees surveyed stating they could not cover six months’ expenses if income were lost, find out if goal setting, budgeting and other financial basics would be a key benefit. Engage your advisor to see if they can set up a financial wellness seminar or workshop series at your workplace. Be creative and try to map what you are able to provide to what your employees have expressed interest in.

Next steps

• Reach out to your employees one on one or through a survey to find out what parts of the financial pic­ture they’d like to learn about
• Talk to your advisor about the possibility of a finan­cial wellness seminar virtually or at your office
• Investigate what financial wellness programs look like and what might fit your business

Sources: prudential.com; forbes.com; forbes.com; medium.com; digitalhrtech.com