Total Rewards strategies are going through a rebrand.
Today’s employees are looking for more support from their employers. As the workforce becomes increasingly more concentrated with Millennials and Gen Z’ers, two generations of workers who prioritize work-life balance, finding purpose in their work, and focusing on personal well-being, this trend is likely to continue.
How are Total Rewards leaders responding?
Integration and Incentivization. Total Rewards leaders are providing future-ready, holistic benefits that treat employees like whole people in need of benefits that address their diverse needs, goals, and desires.
One stand out example of this shift is Ashley Furniture, one of the world’s largest furniture manufacturers, which has embraced a progressive approach to their employee benefits by integrating financial wellness into its broader well-being strategy and incentivizing employee participation. The creative program design and its impact gained national attention as they were awarded an EDDY Award from PENSIONS & INVESTMENTS for Excellence in Participant Financial Education.
A Case Study in Holistic Benefits
With over 35,000 employees worldwide, Ashley Furniture understands that financial stress doesn’t stay at home. It follows employees to work, affecting their mental health, physical well-being, and job performance.
To better support their employees and increase the utilization of their workplace financial wellness benefit, they embedded financial wellness activities into their broader benefits ecosystem using Castlight, a healthcare navigation platform. Castlight allows employees to explore all their benefits in one place and earn points for engaging with them. And they didn’t stop there. These points can be redeemed for rewards, including healthcare premium deductions and sweepstakes entries.
Employees could earn 1,000 points for completing Francis’ proprietary Money Advice Planner (MAP) assessment, which helps employees identify their top five money priorities and provides them with a personal financial wellness score. In addition, employees earned 2,500 points for attending a one-on-one financial planning session with a Francis Financial Planner. This is one of the highest point-earning activities in the program.
These incentives worked. In just one year: employees participating in a financial planning session increased by 5x, the average financial wellness score rose by 6%, and the number of employees who completed the MAP Assessment increased by 600%.
Ashley’s initiative drove a meaningful increase in employee engagement with the financial wellness benefit, increased the wellness score, and prompted a large number of employees to meet with a financial planner to address their personal financial situation.
Why It Matters
This is more than a feel-good story; it’s a blueprint for the future of employee benefits. By integrating financial wellness into their broader Total Rewards strategy and incentivizing participation, Ashley is helping their employees become more financially secure and more engaged with their personal finances. As Ashley knows, when employers treat their people like whole people, everyone wins.
The information contained herein is provided for informational purposes only. Client results are not guaranteed for all organizations, and while the information presented here is believed to be reliable, Francis cannot guarantee its accuracy or completeness. Neither the information nor any opinion expressed constitutes a solicitation for the purchase or sale of any security. Francis LLC does not offer personal legal advice.
