HR leaders are moving beyond traditional compensation to embrace a holistic, technology-driven financial wellbeing program as a strategic imperative.
Maria Valero
Editorial Strategist, HR
Workday
Does money buy happiness? Maybe not entirely, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. Especially for today's employees, who are facing one of the most unpredictable and complex financial landscapes, financial security provides much-needed peace of mind.
We’re all feeling the burden of rising costs and today’s financial volatility. This is a space where HR can make a real, human impact. By providing resources that empower employees to take control of their own financial health, organizations can build a deeper sense of trust and loyalty.
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While compensation has always been a key driver of employee satisfaction and retention, it's no longer the only factor. Employees are increasingly concerned about their overall financial health, from managing debt to saving for the future.
This is a pivotal moment to move beyond traditional benefits and embrace a new, holistic approach to financial wellbeing.
Countless HR teams are grappling with the fallout of financial stress amongst their workforces, whether they realize it or not. It shows up in absenteeism, lack of focus, and burnout. For HR leaders, this is a significant business risk to solve for.
For CHROs, the case for prioritizing financial health is leveraging it as a powerful differentiator in a competitive talent market. When employees feel financially secure, they are more engaged, more productive, and far more likely to stay.
A PWC study on employee financial wellness showed employees who are distracted by financial matters are significantly less productive and more likely to seek new employment. The employees who are stressed about their finances were four times more likely to say they would look for a new job in the next 12 months. On top of that, financial stress and money worries have had a negative impact on the following areas:
For HR, this is a call to action: Investing in financial wellbeing is investing in talent retention and business stability.
In this environment, a competitive compensation package is the table stakes; a comprehensive financial wellbeing program is the strategic advantage. It signals a deep, genuine commitment to employees’ long-term success, turning a transactional relationship into a partnership.
A modern financial wellbeing program encompasses a range of tools and resources that address the full spectrum of an employee’s financial life. A crucial element of the new formula is recognizing that financial stress is a leading contributor to poor mental health, which inevitably affects our performance at work.
Investing in financial wellbeing is investing in talent retention and business stability.
By addressing financial anxiety as the root cause, HR can deliver measurable improvements in employee mental wellbeing. Here’s how HR leaders can build a comprehensive program that shows they care:
Develop financial education and literacy: Provide employees with access to high-quality, unbiased educational resources, workshops, and one-on-one coaching that can help them make informed financial decisions. This should go beyond generic advice and cover practical topics like budgeting tailored to modern economic realities, managing student loan debt, and understanding complex investment options. Financial literacy is the foundation of confidence.
Flexible access to wages: Give employees more flexible control over their earnings. Offering on-demand access to earned wages (sometimes called earned wage access or EWA) can be a critical tool for alleviating immediate financial stress, especially for those who live paycheck to paycheck. This allows them to handle unexpected expenses without resorting to high-interest loans, effectively turning their own paycheck into a safety net.
Implementing a holistic financial wellbeing program at scale requires the right technology. A modern HR platform is the powerful ally that translates business strategy into personalized employee support.
By natively connecting payroll, benefits, and employee data, a unified platform can move from reporting on past actions to offering personalized, predictive guidance.
Imagine this scenario: An employee approaching a financial milestone (like paying off a student loan) receives a proactive notification suggesting they automatically redirect that former payment amount into their retirement contribution. The system analyzes their current benefits enrollment and suggests a more cost-effective healthcare plan based on their past usage, saving them money for their savings goals.
This makes financial health feel accessible and manageable, turning complex data into a simple, actionable step.
An added benefit of automating the administrative burdens of benefits enrollment and management is that it frees up HR teams to focus on high-value, human interaction and provide more direct support to employees who need it most. When the system handles the paperwork, HR can focus on the empathy, coaching, and strategic program design that truly makes a difference.
Another area that benefits is pay equity. With a single, transparent platform, HR teams can help build trust by providing employees with a clear and consistent view of their compensation, career paths, and growth opportunities.
A modern HR platform is the powerful ally that translates business strategy into personalized employee support.
The new formula for employee financial wellbeing is a critical call to action built on the pillars of security, clarity, and trust. For CHROs and HR leaders, this shift is an opportunity to:
Reduce business risk: Mitigate the impact of financial stress on productivity and absenteeism.
Drive retention: Differentiate your organization in the talent market with a genuinely caring approach.
Enhance workforce mental health: Proactively alleviate one of the largest sources of employee anxiety.
By leveraging technology to deliver a personalized and integrated financial wellbeing experience, HR can demonstrate a deep, genuine commitment to its employees. This is how you move from simply paying your people to truly caring for their long-term financial stability and mental health, building a resilient, engaged workforce.
The return on investment for truly integrated financial wellbeing isn’t measured in dollars spent, but in the retention rates an organization achieves, the focus it enables, and the loyalty it earns.
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