Employers largely implemented some of the federal programs that allowed for greater flexibility in Betsy Jaffe employment-based savings programs. Nearly two-thirds of Direct the eor, mployers Market imp ing an lemend Pu ted sbli ome c Relat provisions ion Employee Benefit Research Institute of the CARES Act. The most commonly implemented provision was allowing coronavirus-related press-media@ebri.org distributions (CRDs) from their retirement plan. 202.775.6347 Other Key Findings: Employer-Based Financial Wellbeing Programs Are Maturing, EBRI Finds Programs Evolving in the COVID-19 Era, Focusing More on Emergency Assistance, Less on Student Loan ? In 2020, the proportion of employers who expressed at least some interest in implementing Debt Repayment Programs and Tuition Reimbursement financial wellbeing benefits was essentially unchanged from 2018 and 2019. However, the proportion saying they are actively implementing such a program increased. WASHINGTON – October 22, 2020 – A new study from the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s ? The top issues addressed through financial wellness initiatives were health care costs and Financial Wellbeing Research Center finds that 90 percent of companies answering the 2020 EBRI retirement preparedness; the areas of focus of the initiatives were retirement planning and Financial Wellbeing Employer Survey either have or are developing a strategy for improving their basic finance and budgeting. employees’ financial wellbeing. More of these offerings are maturing into holistic, integrated programs, ? Personalized credit/debt counseling, coaching, or planning is one financial wellbeing benefit that rather than the ad hoc programs that were more prevalent in previous years. saw an increase in prevalence in 2020. The benefits that declined in prevalence were employee discount programs/partnerships, tuition reimbursement, and bank-at-work partnerships. The report, “2020 EBRI Financial Wellbeing Employer Survey: COVID-19 Driving Benefit Offerings and ? Employee engagement in specific financial wellness benefits already being offered increased Potentially Forcing Tough Budget Decisions”, finds companies are looking to demonstrate the impact of most among those offering more immediate overall financial help, such as emergency financial wellbeing programs on the bottom line with increased productivity, as opposed to being fund/employee hardship assistance, short-term loans through payroll deduction, payroll primarily focused on the attraction and retention of employees. The programs have also evolved from a advance loans through the employer, and debt management services. focus on retirement preparedness, to a more complete picture across all aspects of an individual’s finances. With the hope of reducing employees’ financial stress and increasing productivity, companies “2020 EBRI Financial Wellbeing Employer Survey: COVID-19 Driving Benefit Offerings and Potentially are looking for a financial wellbeing score or metric to assess the impact of financial wellbeing programs. Forcing Tough Budget Decisions” can be downloaded at ebri.org. “Financial wellness providers that can clearly make this case will be more successful in attracting The 2020 EBRI Financial Wellbeing Survey was collected through a 15-minute online survey of 250 full- clients,” said Craig Copeland, EBRI Senior Research Associate and author of the report. “However, there time benefits decision-makers conducted in June and July 2020. All respondents worked full-time at are no clear measures that have been developed to measure productivity increases from financial companies with at least 500 employees that were at least interested in offering financial wellness wellbeing programs and other bottom-line issues. This will continue to be an area of focus and research programs. within the financial wellbeing arena.” Respondents were required to have at least moderate influence on their company’s employee benefits COVID-19 Pandemic Caused Plan Sponsors to Rethink —but Not Reduce —Offerings program and selection of financial wellness offerings. Additionally, respondents were required to hold an executive, officer, or manager position in the areas of human resources, compensation, or finance. The COVID crisis caused plan sponsors to reexamine their financial wellness offers, as two-thirds of these employers took steps to understand their employees’ financial wellness needs since the onset of The 2020 Financial Wellbeing Survey was sponsored by Church Pension Group, Financial Finesse, the pandemic. Emergency funds/employee hardship assistance emerged as key benefits during the HealthEquity, International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, J.P. Morgan, MassMutual, Mercer, pandemic, as more employers were looking to add these types of programs and employees were Morgan Stanley, Principal Financial Group and Prudential Financial. becoming more engaged in these programs. Other programs that had previously seen some momentum About EBRI: now have been placed on the back burner, such as student loan debt assistance. Along with emergency funds, overall financial planning and coaching on all aspects of finances are overtaking the prevalence of The Employee Benefit Research Institute is a private, nonpartisan, nonprofit research institute based in more single-issue offerings focused on student loan debt. Washington, DC, that focuses on health, savings, retirement, and economic security issues. EBRI condu The cos ctts of f s object inancial w ive research an ellness programs d education t increas o info ed in rm pl 202 an 0 at a tim design and e when public comp policy, does anies were not blobby an eing faced d does with not take a challenging policy , ra pos pidly itio chan ns. The ging e work of conomy. EBRI Ho is w m thes ade pos e besible nefitsby fun will bding e pro fr vio ded, or if m its memb theers and y will be spo retained, nsors, which is a cruc include ial ques a tibro on g ad range oing into o f public, priv 2021. “As the ate, for se pro- grams profit and no grow in nprof value it to organiza emplotions. Fo yees, it m r ay more be diffi info cult rm to cu ation go rtail the o to www.ebri.or nes that are a g. lready established,” said Copeland. “The maturation of the industry could also lead to a greater sense that financial wellness benefits are simply another cost of doing business, especially if metrics demonstrate its value to employers.”