Let’s Light the Candle!

Happy Financial Literacy Month! This month’s Research Round Up brings you great insights from LIMRA , Aspect43 , MetLife , 德勤 , TELUS Health , Inspirus (a Pluxee company) , Nayya , Businessolver , Gallagher and Fast Company .

"The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence - it is to act with yesterday's logic."

The latest research makes it clear that management guru Peter Drucker’s quote above resonates loudly today in our HR and worker benefit ecosystems. The data from multiple studies clearly shows that our workers are in distress, yet it appears that most of our solutions are still built on the foundation of “yesterday’s logic”. What’s needed is a holistic rethinking of the organization / worker relationship and the benefit and care programs that support them. That said, it appears that organizations that have begun to reframe their worker relationships and programs more thoughtfully are being rewarded in the form of better business results and higher stock prices.

In an era where human capital is the most significant capital that businesses have, many organizations fail to appreciate the direct effect that worker health and goodwill has on their business results.

Key Points:

• Consumer financial literacy scores average only 4.2 out of 10, impeding the ability of workers to make good financial decisions, which in turn impacts their mental health and ability to focus on work.
• Worker mental health continues to remain below pre-pandemic levels and improvements have stagnated over the past year.
• There is a 28 point gap between the percentage of companies saying they demonstrate worker care vs. workers that report feeling cared for (88% to 60%).
• As workers remain in the workforce longer the breadth of worker life stages is increasing, introducing a need for age-tailored benefit programs and education.
• Workplace communicators, the ones tasked with disseminating the organization’s message to workers, “are running on fumes”.

“A Concerning Reality”

In a timely release for financial literacy month, LIMRA’S April Market Facts newsletter Financial Literacy: Important at Any Age highlights a lack of financial literacy among our workforce.

This survey should hit all of us in the head with a rubber mallet – financial literacy is a requisite human proficiency in a market economy and the lack of it means that organizations are relying on workers distracted by financial stressors that could be avoided.

Notable Quote: “Financial literacy, the knowledge and skills required to make informed financial decisions, plays a critical role in shaping individuals’ financial well-being.”

Notable Statistic: Consumer average financial literacy scores are 4.2 out of 10.

“Accepting the Reality”

Without financial literacy, we can’t have financial security. Aspect 43’s latest report Financial Security: The Unspoken Reality Facing America’s Workforce in 2024 brings this point home with alarming statistics about financial security and our lack of attention to it.

Notable Quote: “Financial security is one of those ‘polite’ topics we pretend doesn’t actually impact people ‘like us’ or jobs ‘like mine’.”

Notable Statistic: “32% of households making over $150,000 / year live paycheck to paycheck.”

“Always-On Employee Care”

MetLife’s 2024 U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study?Maximizing Employee Care: Opportunities for Enhancing Care Delivery Across the Employee Experience digs deeply into the topic of worker care and provides vivid examples of how organizations need to rethink their worker relationships to be effective in the future.

Notable Quote: “As our study shows, employees increasingly expect employer support during experiences and moments that employers may not even be aware of (e.g., getting a new pet, the death of a loved one, commuting issues). Not recognizing these moments or failing to offer appropriate support mechanisms as part of the overall employee experience can impact employees’ holistic health, satisfaction, engagement and loyalty.”

Notable Statistic 1: There is a 28 point gap between the percentage of organizations saying they demonstrate worker care vs. workers that report feeling cared for (88% to 60%).

Notable Statistic 2: Organizations with “Top 100 Work Well-being” scores outperform the S&P 500 by 20%.

“Threaten Human Sustainability”

Deloitte’s ?2024 Global Human Capital Trends takes a broad look at the workplace and makes the case for transformational change.

Notable Quote: “It’s time to trade in the rules, operating constructs, and proxies of the past.”

Notable Statistic: “Only 43% of workers say their organizations have left them better off than when they started.”

“Lowest Point in More than a Year”

TELUS Health’s monthly Mental Health Index provides a great pulse check on key worker mental health indicators, and in turn worker ability to effectively serve their organizations.

Notable Quote: “The mental health of workers is at the lowest point in more than one year.”

Notable Statistic: “Workers without emergency savings continue to experience a lower mental health score (53.2) than the overall group (69.6). Workers with emergency savings have a mental health score of 75.2.”

“People-Centric Culture”

Inspirus’s 1st Quarter 2024 Employee Engagement Trends report focuses on what needs to be done to create a culture within organizations that meets the needs of workers.

Notable Quote: “In 2024, we anticipate more organizations will work to intentionally build people-centric cultures, where employees are seen and treated as whole human beings whose needs and wants matter.”

Notable Statistic: “Companies with high trust (a key marker of positive work culture) outperform competitors by 400%.”

“Continuously Educate Employees”

LIMRA’s Rise of the Employee: Strategic Convergence Of Workplace Benefits provides insights on the varying needs of different workers based on their age and highlights the importance of tailoring benefits and education based on those needs.

Notable Quote: “In the 1990s there were about 60 benefits to offer. Fast forward to now, [and] that number has grown to over 350.”

Notable Statistic:? 50% of the workforce is comprised of Generation Z and Millennials and 50% of this group are pursuing non-traditional employment opportunities.

"We Need a New Deal for Employee Benefits”

Nayya’s Time to Build: How Employee Benefits Infrastructure Can Rise to Meet New Challenges focuses on the worker benefit experience directly and highlights the need for better tools to support it.

Notable Quote: “Employees stated the most challenging aspect of selecting benefits is their lack of confidence and having limited benefits comprehension.”

Notable Statistic: 67% of Nayya users indicated they had a better understanding of their benefits after using Nayya’s decision support tool.

“A Veritable Rat’s Nest”

Businessolver’s 2024 Benefits Insights Report clearly outlines the challenges that organizations face in educating workers about their benefits, including the complexity of the healthcare system, the rising cost of care, unique well-being needs, and confusion about benefit programs. At the same time, the report strikes a positive note relative to changes on the way, particularly with the integration of artificial intelligence.

Notable Quote: “A large contributor to many of the barriers that arise between employees and their benefits is the utter complexity of the healthcare system. Layer on top of that the rising cost of care, unique wellbeing needs, and the fact that 84% of employees self-report themselves as confused about their benefits, and we’re looking at a veritable rat’s nest employees are forced to navigate.”

Notable Statistic: Workers are 3.5 times more likely to elect a cost-effective health plan and savings vehicle when they have personalized decision support at the time of enrollment.

“Running on Fumes”

Gallagher’s annual State of the Sector study provides “the definitive report on internal communication trends” and breathes needed insight into the organization / worker communication challenge -- knowledge which is key to making the cultural changes for supporting today’s workforce.

Notable quote: "Right now, communicators are running on fumes while businesses are taking for granted the intrinsic motivation that fuels the profession."

Notable Statistic: “A large proportion of respondents didn’t know if chatbots (26%) or podcasts (19%) were effective as self-service channels – despite increased usage year-to-year.”

“Rudeness and Corruption”

Fast Company’s Why Bullies and Jerks are often Rewarded at Work provides useful insight into why practitioners of bad behavior not only survive, but often thrive in the workplace. This is in spite of all the research we see regarding the importance of positive culture to organizational success.

Notable Quote: “Aggressive leaders who are abusive to others are more likely to enjoy professional success than even their more competent rivals. Why? Because people are impressed by their dominance.”

Notable Statistic: Toxic cultures drive away 1 in 5 workers each year at a cost of $44.6B.

Thank you!

Thanks for taking the time to read. Feel free to reach out to me for thoughts and ideas on how we can work together to conquer these challenges:

[email protected] or schedule a meeting.