Continuing from yesterday’s post, here’s more valuable information you’ll want to consider when developing and implementing a financial wellness training program.

How to Develop and Implement a Successful Financial Wellness Program

Here are some basic steps you’ll want to follow if you want to develop a successful financial wellness program for your organization. 

Step 1: Make a Business Case for Your Financial Wellness Training Program

To gain executive buy-in so that you can develop and implement your program, you’ll need to show them how your program will save your organization money and what metrics you’ll be tracking and evaluating to ensure it always has a high return on investment (ROI). You’ll also want to determine how you plan to promote and manage it. 

Step 2: Commit to Your Business Case and to Your Employees’ Financial Well-Being

As you’re developing or implementing your financial wellness program, it’s imperative that you maintain your commitment to genuinely helping your employees and your organization and that you focus on it yielding positive returns. Otherwise, the impact of the program will fade over time, and it will not remain successful. 

Step 3: Review Your Current Offerings and Resources

When developing a new financial wellness program, you may not have to startfrom scratch. Consult your existing healthcare and wellness vendors or corporate bank to see what it offers and what you may already have access to but may not be aware of to see if you can extend your organization’s service with it. And consult your existing training materials and courses to see if you can build off what you already have. 

Step 4: Offer Assorted Topics and Methods

You will have employees across your organization who are in different stages of their lives and careers, so you’ll want to offer an assortment of financial wellness topics and resources within your program. For example, you’ll want to offer guidance on saving for retirement and offer guidance on establishing a 401(k) or a new savings account. 

And not all employees will want to engage with the same type of training materials either, so offer different methods for training delivery and consumption. For instance, consider curating blog posts, posting video content, hosting live seminars, writing manuals, sharing interviews with financial professionals, distributing a regular newsletter with financial advice, offering free one-on-one consultations with a finance adviser, etc.

Step 5: Don’t Forget to Ask Your Employees What They Need and Want  

Above all else, don’t forget to ask your employees what type of financial services and assistance they need, as this might be different for each organization or department. You can send out anonymous surveys a few times a year and ask them to send you feedback on a regular basis. If you want your financial wellness program to remain effective and continually yield a high ROI, it is essential that it’s relevant and customized for the employees who will be using it. 

In 2018, understanding the importance of financial wellness and training in the workplace is critical if you want your organization to remain competitive. Use the steps above and the information included in yesterday’s post to fully understand and successfully implement financial wellness training inside your own organization.