COVID-19 has reminded HR teams of the importance of employee engagement with their consumer accounts.
As the front-line workers in helping their organization respond to COVID-19, HR teams have the challenging role of hearing directly from employees whose financial security has been shaken by decreased work hours, furloughs or layoffs.
“What am I supposed to do?” “How will I get by?” “Now more than ever, I need my benefits.” “I didn’t prepare for this!” Those are just a few of the more common employee concerns many HR pros are facing during their 9 to 5.
And the stress doesn’t stop after they shut down their laptops for the evening. Throughout the week, they may find themselves experiencing several or all stages of grief—denial, anger, depression, bargaining, and acceptance. Some may even experience guilt.
“Why am I the one who gets to keep her job? What could I have done better to prepare my employees for this sort of thing? How could I have protected them?
The Road Ahead
As our nation looks toward recovery, sociologists and economists agree that things may never go back to normal. We may continue to practice social distancing of one kind or another. We’ll certainly practice better health hygiene. And masks may be part of our new normal in protecting ourselves and our community.
As for financial protection, HR has an important role to play.
Armed with 20/20 hindsight, HR teams are in a unique position to help support their employee’s financial well-being going forward. In this blog, we’ve talked a lot about evaluating employee financial well-being programs. And Businessolver has published several thought leadership pieces on this topic as well. While many of the solutions we have discussed require a fair amount of preparation, many employers already have a program in place that can be easily enhanced—consumer accounts.
Engagement is Key
In understanding why employees don’t maximize their health savings accounts (HSAs), medical or dependent care flexible spending accounts (FSAs), emergency savings funds, or any other consumer accounts you’ve set up, it helps to know something about the behavioral economics at play. A few concepts to keep in mind:
Understanding and considering your employees’ behaviors and thought processes is key to creating a benefits engagement strategy that works and resonates with your workforce.
Learn More
Interested in thinking differently when it comes to consumer accounts? Join this Thursday’s webinar, Overcoming Financial Fragility to learn how to craft a holistic consumer accounts engagement strategy that includes:
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