Top Employee Financial Wellness Platforms — June 2020

A complete guide to finding, selecting and implementing the right employee financial wellness program that attracts top candidates and retains existing employees

“Financial wellness” is getting a lot of buzz these days — and for good reason. After all, today’s workforce is crippled by mounting student debt and other rising expenses. The resulting financial stress often damages an employee’s engagement, productivity and attendance. It’s no wonder then that companies are launching financial wellness programs to help their employees take control of their finances with tools to spend smarter, reduce debt and save more. If you’re one of those companies, then this guide is for you.

But where to begin? There is so much to consider here, from the different types and providers of financial wellness, to how to budget for such a program and measure ROI, to optimizing implementation and employee usage, and more. In this guide, we break it ALL down, so you can make the best decision for your employees — and, in turn, your bottom line.

We spend hundreds of hours researching the best HR and recruiting software so you don’t have to. We never take money from vendors during our research phase and rely heavily on practitioners and experts to help us recommend the right software. Most of the vendors featured on our site have no commercial relationship with us, we want to feature the best software for our readers regardless. Learn more

26 Hours Researched

4 Experts Consulted

13 Vendors Reviewed

Top Financial Wellness Vendors

Here are the best financial wellness programs that we've uncovered through expert interviews and hours of research.

CommonBond

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Through CommonBond, companies can help their employees better pay for education. They will customize solutions for your oganization around paying down debt, refinancing, or saving for future educational opportunities.

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CommonBond

PayActiv

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PayActiv allows employees to break free of payday loans by allowing them to access a portion of their earned wages in between paychecks. In addition, the company provides tools and education designed to help individuals meet their personal finance goals.

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PayActiv

LearnLux

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LearnLux is essentially an LMS that is focused on financial wellness education for your employees. Through lessons, tools, and coaching your employees will learn the ins and outs of 401(k)s, credit card debt, home ownership and many other topics. HR teams can also view employee engagement with this tool via their dashboard.

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LearnLux

Branch

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Branch is a mobile wallet for your employees where the can receive wages and spend at various retailers or transfer money to other accounts. The main selling points are the ability for employees to collect earned wages and tips which cuts down on their reliance for predatory lenders.

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Branch

Tuition.io

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Tuition.io helps companies empower their employees to pay down student debt. When offered as an employee perk, they see people increase student loan payments, which results in a 20% decrease in delinquent loans.

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Tuition.io

Gradifi

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Gradifi enables companies to offer student loan repayment as a company perk. This is huge in an era with student debt nearing $2 Trillion in the United States alone. As part of E*TRADE, Gradifi helps companies large and small to enable employees to pay down their student debt 25% faster.

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Gradifi

Holberg Financial

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Holberg Financial helps employees to get on the right financial footing through goal setting, financial educational materials that are bespoke to an individual, and 1:1 coaching. Whether you're saving for life events, or paying down debt, their offering can help meet your goals. In addition, they have some unique tools that let HR see employee engagement and progress with the tool.

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Holberg Financial

Use-Cases: Why Launch an Employee Financial Wellness Program

There’s a growing need among today’s employees — including recent grads and their still-working parents — to improve their overall financial health. Just look at these results from PwC’s 2019 Employee Financial Wellness Survey:

Financial matters are the leading cause of stress for employees;
Nearly half of all employees struggle to cover everyday expenses;
More than 80% believe they’ll be working during retirement;
Nearly 9/10 employees want financial guidance.

So what does this all mean? For starters, if you don’t have a financial wellness program yet, you should get one going ASAP. When you can help your employees overcome their #1 stressor, they’ll be happier and more focused at the office. This means increased productivity, higher retention and more recruiting leverage. A win-win-win.

However, financial wellness can mean a lot of things — it all depends on the needs of your particular workforce. Laurie Strazzullo, director of strategic partnerships at Gradifi and financial wellness expert, recommends companies think about these three factors: 1) goals, 2) needs, and 3) budget. “Companies need to first understand what they’re trying to achieve with a financial wellness benefit,” she said. “Is there a specific problem that employers are facing with their finances? Understanding this will help them decide if they need a robust, interactive tool that offers a host of financial benefits, or something more simple.” Budgets play a key role in this decision, too — but more on that in the pricing section below.

To help you figure out what type of financial wellness benefit would be right for your company, here is a list of the common use-cases and what they entail:

Student debt repayment and/or refinancing: Chances are, the majority of your employees carry student debt, including millennials and parents of recent grads. With a student loan repayment benefit, your company would contribute a certain amount to their student loan balance every month. With a refinancing program, you can help them get a better interest rate on their loan. In either case, you’re helping them pay their balance down faster and save a lot on interest in the process.
Saving for retirement: 401(k) plans are like the legacy benefit for employee financial wellness. They have been around for a while and allow employees to contribute pre-tax dollars to a retirement plan. In many cases, employers match the contribution up to a certain amount.
Credit card debt: Help employees who consistently carry balances on their credit cards with programs aimed at consolidating — and paying off — their credit card debt faster.
Saving for kids college: If your employees have children, chances are they’re thinking about tuition, be it for private school or college — or both. If you’re looking to provide them with an education savings plan, like a 529, many financial wellness providers offer this benefit.
Better budgeting practices: Through 1-on-1 coaching and other digital tools, your employees can learn how to better manage their money so they spend less and save more.
Home finance: Buying a home is a huge financial investment that requires a healthy credit profile and a large cash deposit. Use a financial wellness provider to help your employees get up to speed on their mortgage-readiness and what they need to do to get approved. And help those already with a mortgage understand their refinancing options.
Early income access: Platforms like PayActiv and Branch allow employees to access their earned but unpaid income without paying any interest. This benefit is especially helpful for employees who tend to live paycheck to paycheck.

Some providers offer a multitude of these solutions, while others focus on just one. The solution you choose will depend on your employee’s needs.

Considerations & Common Mistakes

As with any new tool or program, you’re likely to run into a hurdle or two — either during the search/demo process or once you’ve launched internally. The following tips (inspired by common considerations and mistakes employers face with regards to financial wellness) will help you avoid these hurdles so you can more efficiently launch your benefit:

Look for quality, unbiased advisors: Many financial wellness platforms are owned by larger financial institutions, so the advice they give may be biased towards the parent company’s financial products. Look for vendors that have unbiased and/or third party advisors (or financial wellness programming via video/eBooks/quizzes/etc), that way you know your employees are getting the best advice possible for them. And, see who is actually giving the advice — i.e. are they certified financial coaches or uncredentialed employees?
Beware of predatory lenders: While there are reputable platforms that offer pay advances (like PayActiv and Branch), some predatory lenders masquerade as financial wellness platforms. Predatory lenders — also known as payday lenders — charge extremely high APRs to help customers cover their immediate cash needs in between paychecks. Not to mention, they typically require payments close to the next payday and, if a customer is unable to make that payment, they’ll have no choice but to renew their existing payday loan for another, more expensive one. This causes customers to get stuck in a seemingly never-ending cycle of debt. All this to say, make sure to do your research on whatever platform you are considering for this particular benefit.
Consider breadth of offerings: Some programs only address one demographic or benefit (like only retirement or only student debt), while others provide a full spectrum of benefits. Think about what you want your wellness program to look like, then choose a platform that offers the benefits you’ll need for your ideal program.‍
Don’t be surprised if employees don’t use it: There’s a chance that your employees won’t actually use the product/benefit you bring on board. Thankfully, many of them offer engagement metrics so you can actually SEE how many are using (or not using) it. Some might even have customer success teams designed to promote usage and measure success. If you’re concerned about how your employees will respond, consider surveying them ahead of time to gauge their interest in the type of financial wellness benefit you’re launching. Or, as a benchmark, look at usage of benefits programs you already have in place.

Benefits and ROI

Offering a financial wellness benefit will go a long way in helping your company grow. You can more easily grow your headcount. Your employees’ productivity will increase. And, in turn, your company will reach its goals faster.

Here are a few key benefits you could reap with a financial wellness program:

Employee engagement and retention: Employees want to feel like more than just a cog in a machine when they’re at work. They want to be treated like, well, humans. But more than that, they want to feel like their employer has their best interests at heart. After all, they spend the majority of their time working. Offering a benefit that will directly reduce their #1 stressor and set them on a path for financial success will go a long way. Not only will they feel more supported by you as an employer, they’ll also want to stay loyal to your company (and they might even start referring their friends to apply there, too).
Recruiting: Want competitive edge when it comes to your hiring efforts? Imagine how many more top candidates will apply for your jobs when they see you offer a financial wellness benefit — especially one geared towards alleviating student loan debt. There’s no denying that this will set your company apart. After all, it shows that you care about social responsibility, which is another hot topic for employers these days.
Increased productivity & improved bottom line: When employees are stressed, they underperform and take more days off. Work suffers, goals are left unmet (or barely met), and company performance drags as a result. Alleviating the stressors that keep employees distracted and disengaged will help increase their productivity, boost team morale, and improve overall company performance.

Because financial wellness is still an emerging space in HR, the success metrics aren’t so black and white. Not to mention, success can look different from one company to the next. In thinking about how to measure ROI, talk to your vendor of choice about the metrics they use — or consult their customer success team (if they have one, that is) to help you understand what success looks like for your company, plus how to measure it.

In the meantime, check out our ROI calculator which breaks down the value of things like increased productivity.

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Pricing

Pricing varies. Some vendors offer a flat per-employee-per-month fee, some charge implementation or integration fees, some make money by cross-selling various financial products like debt-refi. Some solutions can be free while others charge as much as $20 per-employee-per-month. Be sure to talk about pricing during your demo.

If you’re concerned about pricing because your budget for this is small or nonexistent, there are some creative ways to make it work. The first is to find a solution that’s low-cost. Or, you could shift budget dollars. Survey your employees to see which benefits they care least about or look at usage data to see which ones are under-utilized. For example, if only 1 or 2% of your workforce is using an existing tuition reimbursement plan, shift those budgeted dollars to financial wellness.

At the end of each year, instead of reimbursing employees for their accrued and unused PTO, give them the option to put those dollars towards their student loans, for example.

Whatever the case may be, one thing is clear: if budget issues are stopping you from creating a financial wellness program, you can — and should — find a way to make it work.

Price Table For Video Interview Software
INTERVIEWS PER MONTH	PRICE PER MONTH
15	$ 100
75	$ 200
300	$ 500
1,000	$ 1,250

Payroll Software Pricing
Employee Count	Annual Pricing Average
10	$2,000
100	$15,000
1,000	$50,000

Interview Scheduling Software Pricing
Company Size	Price
100 Employees	$5,000/year
1,000 Employees	$20,000/year
10,000 Employees	$50,000/year

HR Software Pricing
Number of Employees	Total Annual Cost
100	$12,000
500	$48,000
1,000	$72,000
10,000	$480,000

Employee Referral Software Pricing:
Number of Employees	Annual Cost
100	$12,000
1,000	$36,000
10,000	$84,000
100,000	$360,000

Developer Assessment Software Pricing
Company Size	Annual Cost
1-50	$1,000 - $4,500
50-200	$4,500 - $8,000
200-1,000	$8,000 - $30,000
1,000 - 5,000	$30,000 - $100,000
5,000+	>$100,000

Applicant Tracking Systems Pricing
EMPLOYEE COUNT	ESTIMATED ANNUAL COST
0-100	$ 3,500
100-250	$ 10,000
250-500	$ 15,000
500-1,000	$ 22,500
1,000-5,000	$ 50,000
>5,000	> $ 125,000

Features: What You Can Expect from Financial Wellness Programs

As we mentioned previously, your financial wellness program should be designed with your specific workforce in mind. In other words, what do your employees need to improve their overall financial health?

In addition to the use-cases we outlined above, there are other features you can expect from a financial wellness provider. Let’s take a look:

Financial advisor/counseling: Many vendors offer licensed financial coaches to provide 1-on-1 financial guidance to your employees. This could involve everything from financial education to personalized budgeting help to saving plan recommendations and more.
Employee access via mobile: Many platforms have mobile apps so employees can access their benefits portal more easily and/or on-the-go.
Link to bank and brokerage accounts: Allow your employees to get a holistic view of their finances by letting them link to their existing bank and investment accounts from their benefits portal.
Financial education: In addition to counseling services, your financial wellness program could also include literature, presentations and/or workshops all aimed at increasing your employees’ financial literacy.‍
Employee accountability: Want to make sure your employees actually use the financial tools you’re thinking about investing in? Look for vendors that have customer success teams — such teams are designed to keep employees engaged and help you measure ROI.

Demo Questions: What To Ask During Your Demo

Before investing in any tool, make sure to book demos so you can actually see how everything works. And be prepared to lead each demo so that you come away fully understanding which tool will benefit your company the most.

How to get to this decision depends on the questions you ask during the demo. To get you started, we compiled the following lists of general questions to ask on any demo as well as those more specific to financial wellness.

General questions:

How will this solution fit into the rest of my tech stack? What integrations do I need?
How will others in the organization use this solution?
What are the key features I want to ask about?
What are the things that would make me nervous about buying this sort of solution?
How does pricing work?
What implementation guidelines do they suggest?

Financial Wellness questions:

How often do employees engage with your platform on average?
How do companies evangelize this program internally?
How do companies allocate budget to match employee contributions to student debt repayment, 401(k)s, etc.?
Are there tax breaks out company can take advantage of with this program?
What are the regulatory risks I need to be aware of?
What are the key issues you see employees struggling with financially?
Can you walk me through how employees use this platform? Is it mobile friendly? What about customer service options?
Can you walk me through the HR/admin dashboard?
How does your company make money?

Implementation

In most cases, implementing a financial wellness benefit is pretty low-tech, meaning you shouldn’t have to enlist your entire IT team or organize a cross-functional implementation team. That said, you should still go over the implementation process in detail during your demos. That way, you will know exactly what is required of you to get up and running. Here are two other implementation recommendations to consider:

Evangelize with employees: Get your employees excited about this benefit before it launches. That way, they’ll be more inclined to use it once it’s implemented. You can do this by running an initial survey to gauge their specific financial needs, making all staff announcements about the program you’re building, selecting a handful of employees to do demos, establishing office hours on a monthly basis, etc. Then once it’s launched, meet with each team to go over the benefits platform and answer any questions. You could even have a vendor representative on-site as well to offer help, 1-on-1 counseling, and more. ‍
Link to accounts to understand current financial status: Depending on the actual financial wellness benefit(s) you opt in for, you might need to link to existing accounts (like the 401k provider you currently use). This will help your employees get a more full and accurate picture of their finances in one place. Additionally, if you’re able to tap into your employees’ actual student loan balances, for example, you’ll be able to confirm that minimum payments are being met. If your combined payment (i.e. your and your employees’ contributions) are not enough to meet the minimum payment requirements, then your employees aren’t actually saving any money on interest. Being able to look up this information is one way to measure program success, find areas of improvement, further help your employees, etc.

Next Steps

If financial wellness isn’t a top priority for your company this year, figure out a way to make it one. Money matters are stressing out your employees and negatively impacting their work. To help them get back on track, pay attention to what, exactly, is most important to them. Is it student loan repayment? The ability for workers to get their paychecks faster? Education in general? Retirement options? All of the above?

20-30 years ago, people were retiring at 55 and 60. Today, a lot of people are working into their 60s and 70s because they’re stacked with debt — either because they didn’t plan accordingly or because of things like their mortgages and their kids’ tuitions.

This debt can be debilitating for your employees and, in turn, your company. So ask yourself: do you want to just check a box that you offer a financial wellness benefit, or do you want something that goes beyond open enrollment? Chances are, you’ll want something that will keep employees engaged and actually help them out of the hardships they’re facing.

Whatever the case may be, focus on the areas most important to your company and develop a holistic long-term strategy around them.

Best Financial Wellness Software

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Gradifi
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Holberg Financial
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PayActiv
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LearnLux
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Branch
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Tuition.io
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CommonBond
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Top Employee Financial Wellness Platforms — June 2020

A complete guide to finding, selecting and implementing the right employee financial wellness program that attracts top candidates and retains existing employees

We put in the effort to make this guide awesome

26

Hours Researched

4

Experts Consulted

13

Vendors Reviewed

Featured in

Top Financial Wellness Vendors

CommonBond

CommonBond

PayActiv

PayActiv

LearnLux

LearnLux

Branch

Branch

Tuition.io

Tuition.io

Gradifi

Gradifi

Holberg Financial

Holberg Financial

Use-Cases: Why Launch an Employee Financial Wellness Program

Considerations & Common Mistakes

Benefits and ROI

Pricing

Price Table For Video Interview Software

Payroll Software Pricing

Interview Scheduling Software Pricing

HR Software Pricing

Employee Referral Software Pricing:

Developer Assessment Software Pricing

Applicant Tracking Systems Pricing

Features: What You Can Expect from Financial Wellness Programs

Demo Questions: What To Ask During Your Demo

Implementation

Top Employee Financial Wellness Platforms — June 2020

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