How to Empower Your Employees with Financial Wellness

Recent studies have revealed that employees who feel empowered are 67% more likely to put extra effort into their role. You can empower your employees by equipping them with the tools they need to thrive.

The relationship between employee empowerment and happiness

Employees who feel satisfied in their role are much more likely to be engaged and more efficient for your company – positively impacting your bottom line.

A study by Gallup found that teams that are highly engaged are 21% more profitable. Providing benefits that your employees need to thrive, like financial wellness, is a step towards fostering that engagement. Additionally, the American Psychological Association showed that 89% of employees at companies that offer wellness benefits are more likely to “recommend their company as a good place to work.” This is important for your company because “80% of leaders acknowledge that employer branding has a significant impact on their ability to hire talent. Candidates reveal that companies can pique their interest if they talk about career growth, company culture, and challenges.”

Where mission meets culture

One of the ways that you can empower your employees is through culture. Not only is this beneficial to your employees, but studies have shown that strong company culture can increase revenue up to 4x. Part of building this culture comes down to employee passion for the company mission.

According to a study done by Imperative, “mission-driven workers are 54 percent more likely to stay for 5 years at a company and 30 percent more likely to grow into high performers.” This is a big deal considering that it can cost 33% of an employee’s salary to replace them. Ensuring that your employees are mission-driven is imperative to company success and culture.

Ask yourself – do my employees know our company’s mission? Ensuring that everyone on your team is revved up and passionate about the same goals empowers your employees to be ruthless for good.

Ruthless for Good

In order to effectively carry out your company’s mission, everyone needs to be on the same page. Everyone needs to have that passion to be ruthless for good – empowered to change the world. We accomplish that here at Rain by promoting four core values:

• Fight hard for our mission to end predatory financial products and encourage financial freedom
• Have zero ego in everything you do
• Give frequent, honest, actionable feedback
• Celebrate wins

How to implement a mission-based company culture: the simple steps

Here are some easy steps that you can take to encourage these principles in your team as well. Whether you work at a fast food franchise,a manufacturing plant, or something completely different, these principles can be applied to your team:

1. Check-in with your leadership and make sure you are all on the same page with the mission and culture initiatives. Culture and empowerment starts from the top.
2. Hang up mission and value posters in your break rooms and ask managers to go over them with their respective teams.
3. Create a culture of accountability –  Let your team know that they can always come to you for feedback, advice, and ideas. If a team member feels like they can’t speak up, issues and good ideas can slip through the cracks and hurt your business. Consider setting up a system for this. It can be as simple as a Google form or a physical suggestion box that managers review every week.
4. Make sure your employees have access to the benefits and resources that they need to succeed.  If you already have a robust benefits package, do your employees know how to take advantage of it? If not, it might be time for some coaching (something more than an email). Remember – happy employees are more likely to be more productive and lower your turnover rates.
5. Celebrate the wins of your team! Even if you already have some sort of recognition system (such as an “employee of the month” award), make sure that everyone is celebrating daily wins as well. 15five has a great system called “high-fives” where anyone can call out team members and celebrate them publicly. If the technology isn’t right for your company, old-school methods like bulletin boards and verbal shout-outs can work just as well.

Empowering for Financial Wellness

You can’t have a robust employee engagement or empowerment program without including financial wellness.]. Since most companies currently offer biweekly or semi-monthly pay, it can be a challenge for a lot of people to get from paycheck to paycheck, which can lead to resentment and frustration.

With a shocking 63% of Americans currently living paycheck to paycheck, financial wellness is not just an added perk – it’s a need. In fact, less than ⅓ of workers have access to the resources they need to achieve financial wellness and stability. Additionally, 78% of employees say that worrying about their finances impacts them in the workplace.

When an employee doesn’t have access to their earned wages for an unplanned event or emergency, they can fall prey to predatory services like payday loans. Providing them with instant wage access gives them the peace of mind and a path to financial wellness. 60% of employees say they’d be more likely to stay at their job if their employer offered financial wellness benefits.

In addition to early wage access, Rain also provides a holistic approach to financial wellness. Some of these benefits include: access to a free financial wellness coach through the app, discounts on prescriptions and other health and wellness benefits, budget templates, and a whole library of financial wellness content. Our goal is for your employees to break the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle.

How can implementing Rain at your company empower YOUR employees?

Take it from Jacki Fetter, HR Manager at Brotoloc North, a health care system based in Wisconsin that has been using Rain since late summer of 2020:

“Not having enough money to put gas in your car to get to work or food on the table for your family puts so much stress on a person. Rain allows the employee to access their earned wages before payday when it is needed most. Employers can use it as a cost-effective recruitment and retention tool that provides for employee financial wellbeing which in turn increases productivity and employee morale.”

Brotoloc North wanted to provide a way for their employees to achieve financial wellness. Rain seamlessly integrated with their current timekeeping and payroll systems to efficiently roll out this benefit. With financial stress taken off their employees, they were empowered to do their best work and spend more time with their residents.

The Time is Now

Employee empowerment is more than a trend – it’s a necessity.. From creating a mission-based culture, to setting your employees up for financial success, you have the ability to empower your employees and in turn boost your business.

For more information on how you can empower your employees by providing Rain, reach out to info@rain.us.