Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER November 28, 2016 8 NEWS Finding financial wellness Looking to help employees, and the bottom line, employer programs work to boost productivity, engagement BY SARAH DOBSON WORKPL ACE WELLNESS programs around physical and mental health are commonplace these days. But, more recently, financial wellness has gained in popularity as the impact of em- ployee anxiety around finances is better understood. So, what should employers be doing? How much is too much or too little? And how can employee behaviour actually change? Cana- dian HR Reporter recently hosted a roundtable in Toronto, spon- sored by Sun Life Financial, that delved into these questions and more. Making an impact Money is the number one cause of stress for most people, accord- ing to Frank Wiginton, Toronto- based financial wellness expert. "at stress is impacting their relationships with their families, their co-workers, their eating hab- its, their exercise — everything. It's impacting all these different areas," he said. "If we're not dealing with it, then we're not going to ultimately have an impact on the overall stress in our organizations." Financial wellness is a natural next step in the evolution of work- place wellness, said Lianne Bu- chanan, director of total rewards, HR, at Economical in Toronto. "Because of the financial well- ness piece being so tied to emo- tional stress and how you behave and behaviours in the workplace, this is a natural evolution of ho- listic well-being in the workplace. And financial literacy, financial well-being, is a really important part of that." And financial wellness pro- grams have been found to have a positive impact on areas such as employee engagement, produc- tivity and retention. "To the extent that we can take financial wellness and marry it with discussions around total wellness to get that holistic well- ness approach in the workplace is to the benefit of that employee experience, and anything that we can do to heighten that employee experience is a benefit to the em- ployer," said Buchanan. Overall efficiency, reduced costs of absenteeism and turn- over, and improved productiv- ity are often cited by employers when it comes to benefit pro- grams, said Wiginton. And they can also help with marketplace competitiveness. "It's not going to hit every sin- gle person, it's not going to hit all segments, but it's one of the most common things that's going to have a much stronger reflection of the company on its employees and what we're doing and what we're trying to do. And if we can marry that with 'What are the things, what are the behaviours that em- ployees are having and doing that are impacting their overall effec- tiveness and their overall produc- tivity' — and it's good for them and it's a good thing, it's a positive thing — why not focus on that?" Potential obstacles But many employees are not using the tools and resources needed to make educated decisions, said Buchanan. "Why are we not necessarily seeing those behaviour shifts? So it's really getting to the psychol- ogy, in a sense, behind that, and it's about the behaviour that's go- ing to change those outcomes at the end of their career journey or financial wellness." People don't know where to start — despite all the resources available, said Wiginton. "ey're confused and intimi- dated by it; they hit a website and it's got 47 different options and they go, 'Ahh' and they shut down because they're already uncom- fortable with it and intimidated by it." The problem lies in people's behaviours and how they manage their day-to-day finances, he said. Many are spending anywhere from 100 per cent to 120 per cent of their income, he said, which is a big reason for their stress. "Having a program that sits there and says, 'OK, if you put a dollar in, we're going to contribute a dollar more,' they're going back to their families and their family's saying, 'Well, we're spending 110 per cent, where's that dollar going to come from?' And it's going to escalate their debt and it's going to escalate those issues... you can't help somebody with their debt until you help them with their day-to-day spending, with their behaviour, with their finances, with their perception of their fi- nances," said Wiginton. "If they have a better under- standing of how they're manag- ing and dealing with their money, if we change how they think about their money and get them to start seeing their money in a different way, then we can start influenc- ing the change, influencing the behaviour that can then lead to them getting rid of their debt, put- ting money into these savings pro- grams and giving them the con- fidence to then go and sit down with that advisor… to do that." Privacy concerns may also be an issue, but then an employee assistance program (EAP) can help, said Heather Briant, senior vice-president of HR at Cineplex Entertainment in Toronto. "I don't think we should over- look the value that those EAP programs can provide and I don't know how much as employers we're really emphasizing the avail- ability of them and just reminding people that they're out there." Another challenge concerns the stigma of people not want- ing to reveal their sore spots, said Buchanan. "Many (employees) were raised by parents who taught you not to... talk about your financial concerns or problems that you're having outside of the family, it was kept very hush-hush. And so it's taking that additional step and... just be- ing able to talk about it, knowing the resources are available." As with mental health, we're starting to see a de-stigmatization around people's financial situa- tion, said Wiginton. "Your financial well-being is kind of the last stigma that's out there, so people are a little more open to maybe talking about that." But there is also the liability factor, with employers concerned about drawing the line between education and advice, he said. "at's again where… maybe it's important to have a third party providing this type of thing so that it's not the company... e com- pany's only trying to do what they can do." ere's really no track record of litigation from employees in Canada, said Briant. "We all worry a lot about whether we should be offering advice or we should leave it to anybody else to offer advice, but employees are really looking for information. And I think similar to a relationship they have with their bank or their financial in- stitution when they're choosing external investments, you know, we shouldn't get too caught up in that," she said. "Most plans don't allow some- body to be 100 per cent invested in one very high-tech fund, as an example. So we've already put lots of safeguards around that and so I think as organizations, we shouldn't be as concerned about the liability issue. I'm not saying we shouldn't always focus on ele- ments of risk but I don't think it's as significant in Canada as it may be elsewhere." e diversity of the workforce is also a challenge for financial well- ness, said Naren Daniels, director of retirement and savings pro- grams, total benefits, HR, at Sun Life Financial in Toronto. "When you look at the cross- generational needs, the way people are engaged, the younger population, it's much different today. And they are looking for other things than retirement, which is not in the near future, or savings, really. And so how do we capture that attention? How do we turn it into something that they can understand will benefit them? If you run a cash flow plan- ning seminar, it's not a terribly thrilling topic." And when it comes to finan- cial education, numeracy is a huge part that's missing, said Wiginton. "Let's take a further step back and look at OK, why is it that 60 per cent of Canadians have a level- two numeracy skill level, mean- ing their ability to deal with only simple, clear, uncomplicated tasks involving numbers? And then try and translate that to all the stuff we talk about when it comes to money and how complex it be- comes, and it's no wonder that a large portion of the population cannot connect with what's being delivered." Reaching employees successfully It's about reaching employees where they are and enabling them, said Vatche Rubenyan, senior di- rector of compensation and ben- efits, HR, at Rogers Communica- tions in Toronto. "I know it's a cliché but it sounds like customization might be the way to go," he said. "Often, when we seek solutions, there's still a big — I don't want to use the word patronizing — but it's sort of like Big Brother saying, 'OK, you know, the employer is offer- ing this program that will solve all your problems.'" e reality is people won't re- spond because of differences with their needs and their personal state, said Rubenyan. "I'm seeing (more) differences now than say two years ago. Some of the solutions that are being of- fered now I think are really good and I think, funnily enough, we're getting some push from our busi- nesses where people are coming together and saying, 'Hey, HR, can you offer this program?'… We have this segment of the popula- tion, they all want to retire, so it's a very specific need: 'What can you do for us?'" With demographics and dis- ruptive technologies, traditional definitions of concepts don't ap- ply anymore, said Rubenyan. For example, with retirement. "e discourse isn't 'Whether I retire at 62 or 65...' It used to be and it probably is for a large seg- ment of the population, but there's a lot of people who have moved beyond that," he says. "For them, retirement doesn't have an age, it's really a state of physical, men- tal state, where they will say, 'You know what, I'm ready to go, I'm ready to stop and whether I'm 55, 50, yeah, for me this is retirement.' So I think where we'll have some challenges is when we try to define what is retirement now. You've got to be careful because it might not apply to everyone." Employees are inundated with information at any given time, said Daniels, "but there's no framework or steps on how to en- gage or use the tools at what ap- propriate time and to really derive something meaningful from that to go and springboard and create a solid action plan. ey just don't know." SPONSORED BY Credit: Sandra Strangemore WELCOME > pg. 9 "Your financial well-being is kind of the last stigma that's out there, so people are open to maybe talking about that."

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