.jpg)
.png){kind=spacer}
We put in the effort to make this guide awesome
26
Hours Researched
.svg)
4
Experts Consulted
.svg)
13
Vendors Reviewed
Our criteria: How we chose the best vendors
We take our research seriously and want to make sure we are presenting our readers with the very best solutions in a given software category. Here's how we select vendors to be in our buyer guides:
- Product: We want to have a deep understanding of a vendor's product before recommending it. This usually means getting a demo by a senior executive (their CEO, head of product, etc), and/or using the product ourselves to make sure it has a solid UI, intuitive workflows, and the features to make it a best in class offering.
- User feedback: We do our best to understand what users say when they experience this product. User input allows us to accomplish a more thorough due diligence of products, put new vendors on our radar, and generally make sure we are presenting the right products to our readers.
- Financial metrics: We are very much finance nerds and so use a product's retention rates, growth, profitability, and scale to understand whether or not it is truly best in class.
- Best for a use case: Sometimes the best solution is the cheapest, the best tool for international companies, or the best for startups. We try to include a diversity of solutions so that our readers can find the tool that is best for what they need.
Here's more detail if you want to read further on how we research vendors.
In this guide you'll find
- Top Financial Wellness Vendors
- Use-Cases: Why Launch an Employee Financial Wellness Program
- Considerations & Common Mistakes
- Benefits and ROI
- Pricing
- Features: What You Can Expect from Financial Wellness Programs
- Demo Questions: What To Ask During Your Demo
- Implementation
- Employee Financial Wellness Software FAQs
- Next Steps
“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.
Featured in
Top Financial Wellness Vendors
Here are the best financial wellness programs that we've uncovered through expert interviews and hours of research.
Why we love it
:
Enrich is used by companies for creating personalized financial wellness programs for their employees. With it, you can educate your employees on their benefits, increase productivity, impart financial literacy, and measure their efficacy.
Enrich
Review:
Enrich is a highly-customizable financial wellness program designed to educate your employees on how to better meet their financial goals. Through articles, videos, infographics, and more, they can help your employees to increase their credit scores, increase 401k contributions, and decrease financial stress that takes away from employee satisfaction and productivity.
Enrich is from the same company as iGrad, a financial education program that partners with over 600 colleges to teach students how to better manage their finances.
Enrich
Customers:
Humana, Mutual of Omaha, Geico Credit Union
Humana, Mutual of Omaha, Geico Credit Union
Enrich
Stats:
Best For
Why we love it
:
Designed to help your employees with their financial goals, Gradifi comes with many compelling features such as financial wellness learning modules, interactive tools and calculators, and Gradifi student loan refinancing marketplace.
Gradifi
Review:
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 their employees to pay down their student debt 25% faster. In addition to student loan repayment, Gradifi also offers financial wellness tools, resources, and college savings solutions for employees' families.
Gradifi
Customers:
Pricewaterhouse-Cooper, Carvana, Peloton, Mattel
Gradifi
Stats:
- 800+ customers
- 97% of employees reported being happier with their employer
Best For:
Gradifi is best for larger companies.
Why we love it
:
A comprehensive education assistance benefits platform, Tuition.io is equipped with student loan management tools, student loan repayment assistance, tuition assistance, and more.
Tuition.io
Review:
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. They offer multiple products, such as student debt management tools, public service loan forgiveness tools, Student loan repayment assistance, and tuition assistance.
Tuition.io
Customers:
ADP, Ford, Hulu
Tuition.io
Stats:
- Employer contributions have saved over 45,000 years of student loan repayment
- Employer contributions have saved employees more than $150M
Tuition.io
Pricing:
Customers pay a monthly fee based on the products you decide to offer employees.
Best For:
Tuition.io is great for any company looking to help their employees pay back debt.
Why we love it
:
Payactiv’s financial wellness platform allows employees to access up to 90% of their earned wages between paychecks. At no cost to the employer, the platform also provides features like 1:1 consultations with financial coaches, savings guidance, discounts, and expense tracking.
- Payactiv costs nothing to the employer and helps them boost employee engagement and reduce turnover by supporting the holistic financial improvement of their employees.
- Payactiv allows employees to withdraw their earned wages at any point during the month to pay for bills, medical expenses, and more. You don't have to wait for payday, pay overdraft and late fees, or borrow money.
- Payactiv's financial assistance program provides employees with an opportunity to consult with professional coaches and get advice on saving, budgeting skills, debt management, and more.
- Employees will have to pay between $1 and $2.99 every time they withdraw money from their earned wages.
- Users have reported that they are extremely disappointed with Payactiv's customer support as representatives either do not respond on time or don't fix the issue quickly.
- Payactiv is slow to update employees' accounts with their earned wages, despite repeated requests from users.
- Many employees have reported that they were unable to withdraw their earned wages despite their employer updating their hours in the system.
Payactiv
Review:
Payactiv is a financial wellness platform that allows you to access earned but not paid wages between paychecks. Using the Payactiv app, an all-in-one digital wallet, you can transfer your earned wages either directly to your bank account or the Payactiv Visa card - a reloadable prepaid card that can be used to pay bills and make purchases. On payday, the wages you withdrew will automatically be deducted from your paycheck.
Apart from this, Payactiv offers other services like a budgeting tool, an expense tracker, guidance on savings and spending, 1:1 financial coaching, and a savings calculator.
Payactiv
Customers:
Over 1500 companies use Payactiv including Uber, Pizzahut, Subway, Alorica, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, and Signature Healthcare.
Payactiv
Stats:
- Payactiv has partnered with 1500+ businesses and served over 2 million users since its inception in 2012.
- The platform has collectively provided employees with $5B+ in earned wage access.
Payactiv
Pricing:
Payactiv costs nothing to the employer. Employees can access their earned wages by ACH bank transfer, real-time transfer to a Payactiv Visa Card, or direct transfer to a bank account. Depending on the transfer mode, each transaction can cost the employee between $1 and $2.99.
Best For:
Payactiv can be used by businesses of all sizes. It is especially beneficial for lower-income hourly workers who want to access their earned wages between paychecks.
Why we love it
:
Branch empowers employees and helps businesses streamline their payroll process. Companies can pay their employees and contractors instantly, and with their built-in EWA, sometimes even ahead of the time.
Branch
Review:
Branch is a mobile wallet for your employees where they 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.
Branch
Customers:
Domino's, Supercuts, Henry Ford Health System
Branch
Stats:
- 500+ customers
Best For:
Why we love it
:
Unbiased, configurable, and holistic, LearnLux helps employees reach their financial goals. With LearnLux, employees get a financial advisor who guides them personally and helps them create a plan.
LearnLux
Review:
LearnLux helps employees increase their financial wellness through intuitive lessons and workflows designed to drive tangible results (decrease financial stress, increase IRA contributions, pay down debt, etc).
In addition to lessons and workflows, LearnLux comes with calculators to help employees figure out the ROI from changing their financial behavior. They also have certified financial planners that can be reached by chat or phone to answer questions.
One of the most important differentiators is that LearnLux makes money off the fee they charge companies - they are not getting affiliate fees for pushing certain financial products, nor are they backed by a major financial institution.
LearnLux
Customers:
LearnLux
Stats:
LearnLux
Pricing:
LearnLux is priced on a per employee per month rate, with enterprise preferred-pricing available.
Best For:
LearnLux's financial wellbeing program was created for employees of all incomes in mind.
Why we love it
:
Brightside is an all-encompassing financial care solution. It uses the best-in-class technology but has a human-centric core; there's a dedicated team of Financial Assistants that helps employees with anything ranging from retirement replanning to paying rents.
Brightside
Review:
Brightside offers a holistic, mobile-first financial care platform that empowers employees to live happier, more productive lives by tackling the financial challenges they face on a daily basis. Their service connects your employees 1:1 with an expert financial assistant who listens to their unique challenges and needs to then help them navigate the best options available to them.
Whether those are existing employer benefits, Brightside solutions, partner solutions, or community resources, Brightside’s financial assistants are never paid on commission and any kickbacks they receive from their partners are passed along to the employee as part of Brightside’s KickForward™ program. Solutions on their platform include early access to paycheck, payroll linked-loans, auto savings accounts, debt consolidation, budgeting, and plenty more.
Brightside
Customers:
Brightside
Stats:
- 50%+ engagement
- Average of $1,200 savings per employee
- Net promoter score of 87
Best For:
Any company looking to improve its employees financial wellness.
Why we love it
:
CommonBond focuses on helping employees and their family with student loan debts. It's simple and customizable – employees choose from various options for paying their student debts and can make use of education finance tools for decision making.
CommonBond
Review:
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.
CommonBond
Customers:
Michelin, Hilton, Humana
CommonBond
Stats:
Best For:
Why we love it
:
What makes Spring great is that it's packed with many useful features: customized financial education, simple budgeting tool, goal setting and tracking, progress reports and insight, financial wellness coaching, among others.
Spring
Review:
Formally known as Holberg Financial, Spring 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.
Spring
Customers:
PerkSpot, Kipp, Teach For America
Spring
Stats:
Spring
Pricing:
Spring has three pricing tiers:
- Small Business: $1,000 per year for Financial Wellness Platform, additional $8 per employee for coaching.
- Emerging Business: $2,500 per year for Financial Wellness, additional $7 per employee for coaching.
- Medium Sized Business: $5,000 per year for Financial Wellness, additional $8 per employee for coaching.
- Large Business: $10,000 per year for Financial Wellness, additional $5 per employee for coaching.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing.
Best For:
Spring has flexible pricing plans for companies of all sizes.
Looking for HR Tech Advice? Join our community
Ask questions, share knowledge, find new job opportunities, network and more in our closed HR Tech Buyers Community
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
If you want to be the smartest in the room when it comes to People, sign up for our weekly newsletter
Join 20,000 HR Tech Nerds who get our weekly insights