Top Employee Financial Wellness Platforms — 2023

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 questions that are a good idea to ask on any demo as well as those more specific to financial wellness.

General questions:

• Will this tool integrate seamlessly with our existing tech stack?
• How can we help other members of the org recognize the value of and use this tool?
• What are some specific features important to our business that I should inquire about?
• What are possible reasons for apprehension about purchasing this type of solution?
• How does the pricing structure work?
• Are there any implementation guidelines recommended by the provider?

Financial Wellness questions:

• What are the most pressing financial issues our workers face?
• On average, how frequently do employees engage with your platform?
  Can you guide me through how employees utilize this platform? Is it mobile-friendly? What customer service options are available?
• How do companies promote and advocate for this program within their organization?
• How do companies allocate budgets to match employee contributions for student debt repayment, 401(k)s, etc.?
• Are there any tax breaks to know about?
• What regulatory risks should I learn about?
• Can you provide a walkthrough of the HR/admin dashboard?
• How does your company generate revenue?

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.

What is financial wellness?

Financial wellness is a measurement of money security, including emergency savings, investments, salary, and more.

What is financial wellness software?

Financial wellness software are solutions designed to ensure employees are on the right track to positive financial health, using educational tools and personal assistance.

What benefits does offering financial wellness programs provide to your company?

By providing financial wellness services, you’ll see heightened retention and engagement, increased productivity and improved bottom line, and higher candidate interest. Employees get the benefits of early income access, home financing, budgeting practices, college savings, and mitigation of credit card debt.

What features do financial wellness programs offer?

Financial wellness programs offer features such as home financing, student loan and credit card debt planning, retirement saving, budgeting education, early income access, and educational tools.

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.