Gather Around a Strong Strategy for Workplace Well-being

Dinner and conversation have been a mainstay in my family for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, we’d gather around a heavy, round wooden table that my dad had painstakingly varnished to share a meal and the day’s events. We’d talk about what we learned, what we saw, what was frustrating and what made us happy. That wooden table continues to carry us through many family memories: Celebrations, sadness and everything in between.

In my own house, we carry on the dinner and conversation tradition. It is inevitable that our dinner time includes talk about work culture or employee engagement, and the research coming out of Filene Research Institute. At this point you might be saying to yourself, “Seriously? You have nothing else to talk about?” Let me explain.

Culture and Engagement

In my 25-year career in our great movement, I’ve had the honor to work with hundreds of credit unions of every shape and size. Today, I have one of the best jobs at Filene, because I get to spend most of my time with credit union professionals, bringing our research and innovation to life through education and facilitation. My fiancé, Enrique, has 26 years under his belt in human resources, serving as chief people officer for a large national firm. Thus, it makes sense that topics of workplace culture, employee engagement and human-centered design are fixtures at our dinner table.

As I travel around the country, I often hear the terms “culture” and “engagement” used interchangeably. One of the things that Enrique and I discuss is that in our experience, the two are distinct, yet deeply connected.

Culture is driven by the executive team, particularly the C-suite. It represents the “how” things are done in an organization, based on the company’s values. Meanwhile, employee engagement is driven by people leaders. It is all about attitude, and thus can be tricky to define.

Bill Kahn at Boston University pioneered studies around employee engagement in 1990. He found that we bring ourselves to work in three ways: Physical, cognitive and emotional. Not surprisingly, our economic condition impacts the way that we show up for work. I’ll get back to that in a moment.

Human-Centered Design

When I work with credit unions on innovation or strategic planning, we often begin with a conversation on Human-Centered Design (HCD). It is a kind of design thinking that turns our traditional notion of solving problems on its head: Instead of first focusing on the people/processes/tools that are available, and how much money it would take to solve a problem, HCD asks us to first think about the impact that a solution might have on the people we are solving for – from their perspective. Using HCD, let’s turn our lens to credit union employees and their economic stress.

Every day, we read more about socioeconomic indicators across the American workplace:

• Wages for the average American worker have remained virtually unchanged over the past 40 years.
• Almost 45% of Americans cannot afford an unexpected expense like a set of tires.
• Sixty percent of Americans experience one financial shock per year, when expenses exceed income.
• Since the 1970s, net economic productivity grew by 73% while hourly compensation went up by 12%.
• More than 30% of people making more than $60,000 per year are struggling to make ends meet.

It’s safe to say that American workers are stressed. In Filene’s report, “The Case for Workplace Well-Being,“ Taylor Nelms reported that credit union workers are not immune: More than 50% say that they are worried about money. This impacts our ability to engage fully with our work. Taylor said it well: “How can we expect credit union staff to help members address their financial concerns if the staff are struggling with their own finances?”

Once we’re established the severity of the problem, we must consider how we might help employees plan, spend, borrow, save, earn and insure. We talk about the importance of member financial wellness a lot. It’s time to invest in the financial well-being of our workers.

Financial Well-being

While traditional financial literacy programs are well-intentioned, they are not enough. Behavioral changes, in addition to skills, must be addressed. We must also take into account that there is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Inequalities in age, race and gender must also be considered. There needs to be a holistic approach to wellness that encompasses the totality of an employee’s financial situation.

From a viability perspective, financial well-being across your team has an impact on your bottom line. Filene created a calculator to help you calculate the cost of financial distractions across your team. Using the national average for the credit union hourly wage/benefits, the calculations show credit unions lose an average of $773 in productivity per employee, per year, due to financial stress. If your credit union has 100 staff members, that’s more than $75,000 every year. But if we can alleviate financial stress among our teams, not only will our organizations be more cost efficient, employees will be better positioned to help our members navigate their financial lives, too.

How can you begin to tackle this large issue?

1.  Take a hard look at how you currently help employees earn, spend, borrow, save, plan and insure. Consider your strengths and weaknesses and develop a plan.

2.  Analyze your current salary and benefits structure. Determine the adjustments you need to make to ensure that every employee earns a living wage, and that you offer benefits that help them face unexpected bills without stress.

3.  Check out free comprehensive resources from Filene that can help you elevate financial well-being for both employees and members:

• Download the implementation guide for Employee-Sponsored Small Dollar Loans. This tool has all the information you need to offer a program that can protect workers when they face unexpected hardship – and promote employee loyalty.
• Read about our test of Align’s Income Share Agreement. This alternative to personal loans shows promise as an addition to loan portfolios.
• Download our report from the Reaching Minority Households incubator. Five market-ready programs were tested for their efficacy and sustainability in serving the needs of unbanked and underbanked households.

It All Adds Up

More than 100 years ago, credit unions were created to serve the needs of families that couldn’t get what they needed from banks. Today, we are able to continue carrying out that great work because of the committed, talented and passionate professionals that make up our employee roles.

We have a great opportunity to employ solutions that will help staff and members, that are inexpensive to implement and can help boost the bottom line. What efforts do you have underway to enhance financial well-being in the workplace? Let’s talk, I’m always open for a dinner conversation.

Erin Coleman is Senior Director, Advisory Services for Filene Research Institute. She can be reached at 727-742-3196 or erinc@filene.org.