Making the Unachievable Achievable with Global Financial Education

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Posted on 02-21-2024, Read Time: 6 Min

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"Making the Unachievable Achievable with Global Financial Education" was the title of my session at HR.com. Below are the key insights from the event.

Concerning financial wellbeing, what are the primary areas of focus in 2024?
During the webcast, I polled the audience of total reward leaders on their financial wellbeing focus for 2024. Their options included upgrading their retirement plans, increasing awareness of benefits, addressing inflation, navigating pay pressures, and additional choices. The audience selected a diverse range of priorities and demonstrated employers' growing recognition that employees need help in diverse areas of financial wellbeing.

Illustrated image showing a woman seated in a meditation pose, with a weighing scale over head. A woman on left is adding things such as a clock, thumbs up sign etc. to the weighing scale. On the right side, a man standing on a ladder, is adding dollar coins to the scale.

2024 Financial Wellbeing Outlook

Understanding the 2024 financial wellbeing outlook is critical to helping your employees navigate a volatile year ahead. Geopolitical uncertainties, a record number of elections, the mainstream adoption of AI, the growing challenge of AI-driven financial scams, and continued challenges related to inflation will affect both the global and domestic workforces.

Domestically, the market, housing costs, rising childcare costs, student loan repayment, wages, and healthcare will be primary drivers of employee financial health in 2023. By leveraging technology, employers have an opportunity to provide a proactive and personalized approach to financial and benefit education. Data will be essential to navigate 2024 and beyond, and you can view the current financial health of the global workforce through our global financial health pulse.

Global Financial Health Pulse

Global financial health pulse insights are generated by the financial health scores of millions of nudge users globally. nudge’s financial health scores highlight the ongoing financial challenges that individuals and families face across the globe. For example, in Canada, the financial health score is currently 68/100. This is a higher score than other countries and Canadian scores have held steady over the last several months. Meanwhile, scores globally have deteriorated. Variations in stock market returns, reliance on government support, geopolitical challenges, and the absence of credit scores in some countries underscore the need for localized financial education when offering a global financial wellbeing platform. Below is more detail on US financial health factors:

Financial Challenges Today

Childcare costs: have emerged as a significant factor affecting financial wellbeing. In the US, a $24 billion government subsidy ended and created the "Childcare Cliff,” The end of funding is leading to many daycare closures and rapidly rising childcare costs. Some employees, especially hourly workers, are having to make hard decisions on whether to go to work or stay home to care for their loved ones.

Student loans: With most of the workforce already living paycheck-to-paycheck, restarting student loan repayments was painful in October. Initial reports claimed that 40% of borrowers missed their first payment. Student loans can cause a high amount of stress for borrowers, and many are still adjusting to the additional payment in their budget.

Wages: Wages are a significant talking point in the compensation and benefits world. High inflation is making employees feel they are underpaid and willing to look for higher-paying opportunities. Meanwhile, employers cannot simply "top off" employees' pay to keep pace with high inflation. Therefore, helping employees understand their total rewards and topics like budgeting are more important than ever.

Healthcare costs and medical debt: With 41% of American adults carrying medical debt, educating employees about healthcare plans and HSAs is essential.

Building the Case for Financial Wellbeing

Organizations are successfully implementing global financial wellbeing programs. Expedia, with close to 15k employees globally, recognized the importance of addressing financial struggles and launched nudge, achieving 70% engagement. Veritas, facing attrition challenges, implemented nudge to improve benefit literacy, and achieved a 99% engagement rate. Meta (Facebook) deployed nudge to combat financial anxiety and enhance awareness of stock plans in Latin America.

The nudge Experience

nudge helps improve employee financial wellness and drive the uptake of employee benefits through financial education and personalized, timely communication. nudge supports clients with resources to elevate their programs and drive engagement through the platform. The 2024 Global financial wellbeing calendar is a resource that fosters ongoing program and benefit engagement.

To conclude, you can achieve the unachievable by implementing a global financial wellbeing program. Get in touch to find out more about why nudge is trusted by over +300 of the world's leading organizations.

Author Bio

Image showing Jeff Miller of Nudge Global, standing against a red and black background, wearing a high necked black shirt, cropped brown hair and smiling at the camera.

Jeff Miller is US Vice President for nudge Global. Jeff is a financial wellbeing advocate with 20+ years of experience partnering with some of the world's largest and most complex organizations and helping them launch financial wellbeing programs. Jeff spent 19 years at MetLife in Financial Wellbeing and left as Team Lead for MetLife’s PlanSmart Financial Wellbeing Platform. At nudge, Jeff is responsible for leading the US nudge team, strategic growth initiatives, and growing partnerships.

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This article was published in the following issue:
February 2024 Employee Benefits & Wellness Excellence

View HR Magazine Issue