By Ben Allen
According to one recent CU industry survey, 86% of employees said it was important to them that their employers offer financial wellness programs.
But only 46% of those same employees said their company or organization had one.
If only a company could offer a financial wellness program without having to spend money on it. If only that program could be set up, for example, in partnership with a credit union that would underwrite the costs. That would be an ideal arrangement, wouldn't it? Well, that's exactly the way we have modeled PerkUp, to make financial wellness programs easily available to more companies and more employees.
For those employees whose companies do not currently offer financial wellness programs, 70% of the respondents in that survey said they would take advantage of these programs to help them better manage their finances and prepare for their futures.
But it seems from the survey that for some employees, there is a negative perception of financial wellness programs. About one-in-three see a stigma attached to participation, and fear that using these services makes them look bad. The reason for this is that too many financial wellness programs come across as negative, with their focus on “fixing” people, by getting them out of debt and remedying their bad financial behavior.
The PerkUp approach is positive, with entertaining on-screen activities the employees can engage in, mixing education and games. It doesn’t scold; it encourages. The employees win monthly rewards and perks both for the learning activities and for their responsible financial actions, such as adding to their 401(k) or savings accounts.
Words Matter
As the survey found, programs that use phrases such as "living within your means" or that aim to fix an employee's spending habits are perceived very negatively and get tuned out. In contrast, more optimistic phrases, such as "planning for retirement" or "maximizing your savings," are seen very positively.
This survey validates the positive approach to making financial wellness and education enjoyable and rewarding.
PerkUp is a fully automated, credit union-sponsored online program, accessible from in-plant kiosks or from any digital device that incorporates rewards and behavioral finance tools to engage employees. Employees are rewarded, or "perked" as they improve their financial knowledge. If they want to join the sponsoring credit union, they can do that through an online portal, as well as open accounts and even take out loans without having to visit a credit union branch.
If you want to know how PerkUp is used in the workplace, ask New Orleans Firemen's FCU, which sponsors a PerkUp presence in a local Fortune 500 company’s production plant, one of its SEGs. Firemen's FCU has signed up hundreds of the plant's employees for the financial wellness program, has gained many new accounts, and has seen scores of those individuals take out small loans.
Ben Allen is President of Dolphin Debit, the full-service ATM management company that is the parent company of PerkUp. He can be reached at ballen@dolphindebit.com.