8 Health and Financial Trends at Work

Financial health refers to a person's ability to create financial resilience and prosper. True financial health includes all the elements that enable people to thrive, not just the absence of debt.

Matt Bahl said in his interviews, “ We use the term “financial health” purposefully." If you go back 50 years, health was defined as “the absence of disease.” But we now know health is about that, plus factors like diet, exercise, access to affordable care, and more.

Financially distressed employees miss more work and spend more on healthcare than their contemporaries. These issues affect employee engagement levels and the company's bottom line. A person's personal life and every aspect of their company's operation can be impacted by finances. Let's read more about financial trends and wellness solutions you can implement at your workplace.

Financial Wellness Solutions

There is optimism that financial wellness programs will be able to address all the issues brought on by financial hardship to the advantage of both employees and employers. Financial wellness is directly associated with positive behavioral changes and greater relationships regardless of income level. Employers implementing financial wellness initiatives benefit from happier, healthier, and more productive employees.

Employees (as well as employers) express increased satisfaction with their benefit plans when financial wellness is provided, according to Mercer's Healthy Wealthy and Work-wise report.

Through seminars on goal-setting, fundamental financial literacy, budgeting, debt management, and stress relief, financial wellness solutions provide financial education to employees. A financial wellness program's objective is to direct staff members toward decisions that will help them attain goals for every stage of their financial lives, such as saving for a home, a car, college, or retirement.

Suggested read 6 Employee Financial Wellness Tips For Your Workers

Employees and Their Finances

The biggest source of stress for many workers is money. The degree of financial stress varies by population. Young individuals are heavily indebted, particularly due to university-related costs. Due to cash flow problems or unforeseen expenses, families may find it difficult to reach their financial goals.

Even older people experience financial strain from looking after elderly parents or children who have returned to their childhood homes. Single parents face unique financial pressures. As a result, it's crucial to consider the whole range of your employees and the diverse financial lives they may lead when developing a financial wellness program.

Employers may provide employee benefits like free access to a financial planning app or website, investment aid, matching funds for emergency savings, or even contributions towards student loan repayment. These are just a few examples of financial tools for the workplace. These resources can assist workers with basic financial issues like budgeting, debt management, long-term savings, planning, and making smarter financial decisions. Additionally, employers can make these tools available remotely and online.

Suggested read Financial Stress and Mental Health: An Everlasting Relationship

The Rise of Internet-Based Technology Platforms

The rise of automation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI), the spread of internet-based technology platforms, and the movement toward more entrepreneurial sources of income all contribute to a fundamental change in how people work and make a living. However, it will be up to us whether this change results in more prosperity and equality. We now have the chance to create new financial services that will better meet the requirements of the members of the emerging global workforce, some of whom may be disproportionately underserved by current goods and services.

Most people who would use today's financial services have had a 9 to 5 job for a single employer, frequently for their whole careers. Systems for managing payments, savings, and wealth, for instance, were created based on the idea of a consistent, biweekly income. However, adjustments to how money is made must also be made to how it is paid out and handled. By implementing these changes, we can help a younger generation whose incomes are erratic and who bear greater personal responsibility for retirement and retraining.

8 Biggest Financial Trends at Work

1. Realizing that the most important foundational element is revenue.

Companies are becoming aware of their obligation to pay employees a fair salary. Although it's not the whole picture, it forms the basis. Cash flow help is important in comparison to other compensation plans. With many Americans struggling to meet ends, providing services such as access to wages and other cash flow solutions is critical.

2. A stronger emphasis on ongoing financial assistance.

Early employer-sponsored financial benefits often focus on retirement planning, coaching, education, and other long-term tactics, which are essential. Keeping the long-term measures in mind, recently, there has been an increased focus on how to assist workers' daily requirements. An emergency savings program is an example of how employers are trying to deal with this critical issue of short-term liquidity.

3. Online platform economy workers require new financial tools to satisfy their needs as the industry expands quickly.

All 10 million jobs produced in the United States between 2005 and 2015 were not standard 9–5. Alternative work accounted for over 90% of net employment growth between 2005 and 2015 in the US. Online platforms are becoming a more common source of revenue for individuals.

4. Access to company performance sharing.

Companies realize that granting more workers access to the benefits of firm performance can start with

• Reducing demographic imbalances
• And fostering intergenerational prosperity through equity awards or other channels.

5. Job turnover will result from automation, ML, and AI.

A recent McKinsey analysis showed that 75-375 million people might need to change jobs in the upcoming decade and learn new skills. two-fifths of the world's jobs may be automated within 15 years.

However, individuals and families are not financially ready. Only 38% of employees are in jobs with a high risk of automation. According to the "We forum's" poll, 8,000 people had funds to cover six or more months if they lost their major source of income.

Employers must offer solutions that foster short-term savings and develop innovative loan products to allow workers to retrain for new roles in a changing economy.

6. Adding policies to benefits.

People's lives don't change when they leave work and require help. Understanding that the workplace may play a key role in caring for the full person is crucial. Paid leave policies, support for childcare, and parental leave are examples of how to realize this.

7. Improved financial management tools and quicker access to capital to get their enterprises off the ground (FCA).

People are turning to more entrepreneurial activities and starting their businesses. Even though the study found that small business owners are more stable than regular 9–5 employees. Yet,

• Only 46% of small business owners polled claimed to have a reliable monthly income when compared.
• More small business owners than any other demographic group analyzed (55%) reported paying a payment late in the previous 12 months.

Survey: 77% of small business owners prefer receiving revenue regularly. PayPal just introduced Funds Now, intending to make rapid access to funds for small businesses the rule rather than the exception. There is still work to be done, says Paypal co-founder Jack Dorsey.

With this small company, owners continue to increase economic opportunity, jobs, diversity, and the general health of our communities. Hence, we must also provide better financial management tools and credit solutions.

8. Millennials want more freedom in the workplace and prefer using digital tools to manage their finances.

Millennials are more likely than Gen Xers to hold multiple jobs. 21% of millennials said they had changed jobs the previous year, three times the percentage of non-millennials. Younger workers want flexibility and appear to be okay with more frequent job changes.

Companies must democratize access to effective financial management tools to keep up with them. That can account for many income streams, help employees manage earnings, and be more inclusive.

Conclusion

Companies must focus on building financial health and resilience for their employees. 1.7 billion people in the world still lack access to formal financial services. If we fail to make responsible choices in financial services, the challenges of the future of work may only be magnified.

Employers must be courageous. Now is the time to experiment and test some of these new products on the market. You can have as many spreadsheets and dashboards as you like, but nothing beats talking to people in person.

A happy workplace is where employees believe that the benefits offered to improve their lives. Employers must listen to their employees to be more responsive, and they must also try new things to determine what has the greatest impact.