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Mercer: Reinventing Employee Financial Wellness

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Martine Ferland, President and CEO

Employees facing fewer financial worries and distractions; employers benefitting from a more focused, engaged, and productive workforce — employee financial wellness programs can help employees find balance and control over their finances, now and throughout their lifetime. Improving employees’ financial wellness can lead to healthier employees, reduce absenteeism and lower turnover rates while raising employee satisfaction and improving the employer brand. However for financial wellness programs to be successful they need to do more than just provide education they need to result in employees taking appropriate actions that lead to financial success.

That’s where Mercer comes in.

Mercer’s approach to employee financial wellness focuses on engaging employees throughout their lives, with a focus on guiding employees towards action. The objective is to help employees reach their goals for every stage of their “financial lives,” whether it’s saving for a house, a car, college, or retirement. Organizations have every reason to want their employees to be financially sound. An effectively designed employee financial wellness program can help employers in bolstering productivity, because employees aren’t distracted by financial worries. They can drive more predictable workforce flow throughout the organization. This results in improved physical health (people with high levels of financial stress are more prone to sickness) and an increase in employee engagement and retention.

Having a clear understanding of the business benefits of financial wellness, integrated within the overall wellness and HR talent/acquisition strategy ensures corporate commitment and is key to a successful financial wellness program. Mercer’s methodology relies on data analytics to provide insights into employee behaviours. The company uses statistical analysis to isolate demographic and behavioral characteristics to find the most successful programs and tactics for employees. Next, they also craft “personas” from the data to increase employee engagement.

Having a clear understanding of the business benefits of financial wellness, integrated within the overall wellness and HR talent/acquisition strategy ensures corporate commitment and is key to a successful financial wellness program

The goal is to help employers develop a sustainable approach to financial wellness that improves outcomes for employees. To better ensure that both employees and employers derive maximum value, Mercer can also perform a cost-benefits analysis.

In the US there are well over 300 financial wellness vendors. They operate in a market that is not well-established, and is evolving at a rapid pace. The companies themselves are young, with limited track records. In such an environment in-depth vendor research and ongoing vendor monitoring is essential, Mercer has a team of specialists focused on financial wellness vendor research and monitoring. There’s a lot of financial advice out there; most have a not-so-hidden agenda, linking advice to investment programs and products. At Mercer, we are transparent with our clients and help them be transparent with their employees. Mercer financial wellness programs help employees take action and reduce financial worries while employers increase workforce engagement and productivity.

Recently, by hearing firsthand from workers and senior decision makers, Mercer Marsh Benefits, Mercer and Oliver Wyman have identified promising strategies to boost worker engagement and overall health and well-being — and where gaps exist in employers’ understanding of workers’ priorities. The survey is comprehensive in its geographic reach and comprises seven mature and six growth markets across Asia, Latin America, Europe, the US and Canada, including 16,564 workers and 1,300 senior decision makers (100 per market). The worker study focused on adults in full-time or part-time work, freelancers and gig economy workers; all between the ages of 18-to-64 years. The employer study was aimed at senior business decision makers in commercial organizations of 50 or more workers. At least 50 percent of senior decision makers are in companies with more than 500 workers, globally. Insights on employer and worker views of digital health solutions can help employers determine a health and benefits strategy to help meet both their business objectives and worker priorities.

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Company
Mercer

Headquarters
New York, NY

Management
Martine Ferland, President and CEO

Description
Mercer’s approach to employee financial wellness focuses on engaging employees throughout their lives, with a focus on guiding employees towards action. The objective is to help employees reach their goals for every stage of their “financial lives,” whether it’s saving for a house, a car, college, or retirement. Organizations have every reason to want their employees to be financially sound. An effectively designed employee financial wellness program can help employers in bolstering productivity, because employees aren’t distracted by financial worries. They can drive more predictable workforce flow throughout the organization. This results in improved physical health (people with high levels of financial stress are more prone to sickness) and an increase in employee engagement and retention