Are your Employees Financially Happy?

Vest Financial
Aug 24, 2017 · 3 min read

Managing a company comes with many responsibilities. Not only is it important to make sure your employees are doing their job and doing it well, it’s also key to have a gauge on their happiness.

Unhappy employees lead to all kinds of negatives for your business, including high turnover and a low employee morale. One of the biggest roots of that unhappiness can come from financial stress. Below we’ve outlined four questions you should ask yourself when it comes to your employee’s finances.

  1. Are you paying a fair wage?

The first, and most important place you should start is salary. Do you offer a yearly salary below or above the market average? While it will ultimately come down to your budget and how much you can afford to pay for a position, you should aim to get as close to the market rate as possible. This gives people the feeling that their work is valued and keeps them from wondering if they could make more money elsewhere. While your company may offer a great learning experience to a recent grad, that isn’t what pays the bills.

2. Do you offer financial benefits?

Financial benefits include everything from a 401(k) or other retirement plan to student debt reimbursement. The most recent report states that Americans owe more than $1.4 Trillion in student loan debt, so chances are, you have a few employees still paying back theirs. That said, this is one of the number one reasons why young employees stress over their finances. Consider offering to help them pay off some of these debts, or at least get them headed in the right direction by offering employer matching on their retirement plans.

3. Have you considered offering education around finances?

We all wish that college taught a class on “The Real World 101,” but instead we were learning about punnett squares in Biology. If your workplace has a large amount of 20-something year-olds, it could be really beneficial to offer educational resources around finances. Whether it’s how to file your tax return or an explanation on your credit score, this information will make you a hero to your employees. And we can be a hero to you. VEST offers resources like the ones mentioned above, plus our platform tracks your employee’s expenses and helps them create a budget and meet weekly spend goals.

4. Do you offer reimbursements for work-related expenses?

This is an easy one. If you expect your employees to provide their own equipment, travel, or business meals, you should consider offering to reimburse those expenses. These are all things that drive your business forward and in most cases, it shouldn’t be the responsibility of your employees to cover the cost.

If you can take the weight of financial stress away from your employees, they will spend fewer work hours worrying about money, and spend more on getting their job done. Let us know how you improve employee happiness in your workplace, we’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas in the comments below!

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