Particularly in today’s economic climate
How can you motivate employees to save in this current economic environment? In September, inflation was at 8.2%. Americans are dipping into their savings, not saving at all, and accumulating debt as a result. It’s definitely a challenging time for most employees. In fact, here are a few recent grim statistics:
- 56% of Americans can’t afford a $1,000 emergency expense. (Bankrate)
- 24% of consumers have no savings set aside for emergencies. (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau)
- Credit card balances have increased by $100 billion since the second quarter of 2021. It’s the biggest jump in more than 20 years, up 13%. (Federal Reserve Bank of New York)
Employee Saving Though a Financial Wellness Program
Times are tough. Absolutely. Employees need help with their individual financial situation – especially now. They need guidance on how to save more, decrease expenses, set a budget and goals. These skills aren’t taught overnight. Most people have nowhere to turn to for financial advice and employees are stressed out. It’s affecting companies’ bottom line because financially stressed employees have low morale and decreased productivity. A financial wellness program needs to be a priority within the workplace to help employees save, maximize their paychecks, and improve their financial situation.
Making Employee Saving Engaging
So, how can you, as an employer, inspire your employees to save during these times? The right financial wellness program offers engaging methods and motivating (and even fun!) content to promote increased savings participation among employees. In fact, take a look at one of our engagement videos on TikTok “Financial Myth #1: A Credit Card Is a Good Emergency Fund”.
Easy-to-Understand & Inspiring Employee Financial Education
In addition, financial education should be easy-to-understand so that all employees can comprehend to help them get motivated to save. Accordingly, here is a savings goal article that is simple to digest within BrightDime’s comprehensive library:
Ready to set your savings goals? Here are some steps to get started:
- Write down your goals, their time frame and priority. Are they short, mid or long term? High, medium or low priority? Start with just your highest priorities.
- Make each goal specific. We recommend using the SMART goal method. For example, “I would like to save $1,000 in eight months for new furniture.”
- Review/create your budget and see what funds you have leftover each month. If it’s not as much as you’d hoped for, look at your current spending habits and see where you can cut back (sacrifices), or look for ways to bring in additional income.
Once I get started, what else can you do?
- Determine the amount you need to save each month to meet each saving goal. Using our furniture example: $1,000/ 8 months =$125/month. Take the total amount of each goal and divide it by the number of months you need to accomplish it.
- Set up automated savings. Once you settle on an amount you want to save, set up an automatic transfer from your checking account to a separate savings account.
- Let it grow. Resist the temptation to dip into your funds or to pull your money out for other things. Let your savings grow and increase your monthly contribution if you can.
How can BrightDime help you?
- Review your goals each year. Life happens and things change. Are these still your goals and your priorities? BrightDime coaches can help you figure out how to adjust as needed.
- Monitor your progress. Check in with a coach on a regular basis to see how you are progressing, and celebrate your small successes to re-energize yourself to keep going.
Need Help Motivating Your Employees To Save?
Creating an engaging culture for your employees to save begins with a financial wellness program that provides money management tools but also offers motivating and easy-to-understand communications such as helpful articles, videos, live webinars, fireside chats, along with one-on-one coaching. At BrightDime, we provide just that. Together with our innovative digital platform, we inspire employees to take action and move toward their savings goals.
Contact us today to learn more: learn-more@brightdime.com
For more helpful articles, go to: https://blog.brightdime.com