Looking for employee financial wellness challenge ideas? Many people are stressed about their finances, so it makes sense that more employers are incorporating financial wellness into their overall wellness programming.
As the statistics below illustrate, financial wellness not only benefits employees, but it also pays big dividends for employers through:
- Healthier, happier, more engaged employees
- Reduced turnover
- Overall cost savings
However, at a time when many employees are tightening budgets themselves, it can seem challenging to expand financial wellness offerings. The good news is that you don’t need to break the bank with the following tips and financial wellness challenge ideas.
Table of Contents
- Financial Wellness Statistics
- Financial Wellness Tips
- 35 Financial Wellness Challenge Ideas
Employee Financial Wellness Statistics
- 60% of full-time employees are stressed about finances. That stress negatively impacts mental and physical health, self-esteem, sleep, and personal relationships (PWC Survey)
- 44% of employees who have financial stress say it distracts them at work (PWC Survey) – and they spend an average of 4 hours at work each week handling personal finance issues (Harvard Business Review)
- Financially stressed employees are twice as likely to be less engaged at work and to look for new jobs (PWC Survey)
- 77% of employees consider financial wellness to be an important benefit, yet only 28% of employees offer it (HBR)
- Gen Z (92%), Millennial (85%), Gen X (72%) and Boomer (64%) employees are all more likely to stay with employers who offer financial wellness (PNC Bank)
- Financial education programs can eliminate at least one hour per week of financial distress per employee. To quantify that, a company with 30 employees averaging $15 per hour could recover $22,500 of value each year by offering financial wellness (Journal of Financial Literacy and Wellbeing)
RELATED: Employee Wellness Programs: How They Save Money
Employee Financial Wellness Tips
These tips for financial wellness can help you develop challenge ideas that fit your employees, your culture, and your budget.
Find the Right Fit
Adding financial wellness to your offering doesn’t need to be expensive. As you consider different financial challenge activities, identify which initiatives will truly benefit your employees without significantly increasing your costs.
Give Employees Options
In the wellness industry, we’re seeing a shift from a preference for company wellness initiatives in which everyone participates to programming that offers both company-level and individualized wellness: activities, tasks, and recommendations based on individual needs. The best practice is to offer a mix of company and individual financial wellness activities.
The WellSteps platform, for example, provides a variety of options – from full-length behavior change campaigns to challenges, habit builders, mini-campaigns, and Quizzeos. We’re even developing an AI-driven platform to cater to individual wellness.
The idea is to give companies and employees options so they can participate in the financial wellness activities that are most relevant to them. Instead of requiring employees to complete every item within a rewards program, we give them the flexibility to choose between four or five different options within a given activity.
Focus on Tasks and Habit Building
While comprehensive programs can achieve excellent results, budget-minded companies might be better off focusing on individualized tasks and financial wellness challenges that build habits over time.
For example, biannual meetings with financial consultants or advisors is a common financial wellness benefit, but it costs companies money. At the same time, twice-a-year consultations do not provide the consistent reinforcement that truly builds habits over time.
At WellSteps, our platform includes options for:
- Behavior change campaigns: Participants get the tools needed to manage their personal finances, track spending, reduce debt, increase savings, and create a budget
- Challenges: Daily tasks that foster financial wellness
- Habit Builders: 28-day programs that focus on financial planning
- Mini Campaigns: Two-week programs featuring one task each day, promoting healthy financial habits in a short time. Examples include Watch Your Wallet, Cash No Card, and Prep Your Records
- Quizzeos: One-time videos with education and knowledge-based quiz questions that focus on topics like shopping healthy on a budget and understanding financial wellness principles for healthy money habits
If you’re looking for a simple way to add financial wellness to your offering, task-based programming with multiple options is a good path to start on.
RELATED: Financial Wellness Programs in the Workplace: Full Guide
35 Financial Wellness Challenge Ideas
Here are some financial wellness challenge ideas and tasks we’ve successfully used for rewards activities on our WellSteps platform.
Boost Savings
These financial wellness activities can help employees build good savings habits and put more money in their bank accounts.
1. Start a holiday account
Most banks and credit unions offer holiday accounts, and putting a little back each week adds up by the time the holidays roll around.
2. Use 10 money-saving coupons in a month
It doesn’t take much time to track down coupons for grocery stores, local retailers, and even online stores like Amazon – and the savings are well worth it.
3. Research and try a new investing option
Employees can try many different options, including high-yield savings accounts, micro-investing apps like Acorns, fractional share investing apps like Robinhood, and crowdfunded real estate investing through platforms like Fundrise.
4. Sell unused clothing and household items
Facebook Marketplace makes it easy to cash in on old clothing, electronics, dinnerware, sporting goods, and just about anything else employees have to sell.
5. Listen to a financial podcast
The Ramsey Show, How to Money, and Popcorn Finance are all great options for learning about personal finance.
6. Read or listen to a financial literacy book
Rich Dad, Poor Dad, The Total Money Makeover, and The Simple Path to Wealth are all popular financial literacy books.
7. Round each purchase to the next dollar and put the difference in savings
This is easy to do with an app like Chime or Current.
8. Set up an automatic transfer to savings or an investment account
Most online banking platforms make it easy to set up automatic transfers each day, week, or month.
9. Emergency fund challenge: Save $5/day for a month
Challenge employees to build an emergency fund by saving $150 over 30 days.
10. Micro-investing
Micro-investing apps like Acorns and Stash make it easy for employees to dip their toes in the water with small investments.
11. Review employer benefits
Create a task for employees to ensure they’re maximizing employer-offered benefits such as HSAs or 401(k) matches.
RELATED: Fun Workplace Wellness Challenge Ideas for Employees
Reduce Spending
These financial wellness program ideas will help employees reduce their overall spending, leaving money for savings, debt reduction, and other goals.
12. Review purchases
Ask employees to review all purchases over the past three months and identify one area to improve.
13. Stop the spend
Challenge employees to avoid spending money over a single weekend or for four consecutive days. They could even list what they would have purchased so they can see how much they saved.
14. Purchase used
One month, task employees with purchasing something used or refurbished instead of new.
15. Walk or bike to work
Invite employes to walk or bike to work three times in a month to save on gas. Alternatively, they could take public transportation to get at least halfway to work.
16. Hang clothes to dry
Dryers use a lot of energy, and that adds up on electric bills. Challenge employees to hang clothes to dry instead of using the dryer.
17. Cash only
Encourage employees to only use cash for non-essential purchases for a week, which can reduce dependence on cards.
18. Meal plan and prep challenge
Challenge employees to create a budget-friendly meal plan for a week to cut back on dining out. This pairs nicely with a grocery coupon challenge.
19. DIY home repair
Encourage employees to learn and complete a minor home repair instead of hiring it out, which could lead to significant savings.
20. Use the library
Public libraries offer free books, movies, and other items people commonly pay for.
21. Price compare challenge
Challenge employees to compare pricing from three different retailers before making non-essential purchases.
22. Delayed gratification
Encourage employees to wait 48 hours before buying non-essential items, which can reduce impulse purchases.
RELATED: How to Build a Workplace Wellness Challenge
Budgeting and Planning
These financial wellness challenge ideas encourage employees to plan their spending.
23. Create and stick to a budget for a month
Sites like Goodbudget and Everydollar simplify the budgeting process, and budgeting could prove to be one of your most popular financial wellness topics.
24. Review retirement plans
Encourage employees to review their retirement plans to make sure they’ll have what they need to live the lifestyles they want.
25. Write financial goals
Writing down specific financial goals – both short-term and long-term – can help employees focus on what matters most, track progress, and adjust as needed.
26. Research insurance
Employees can research life and disability insurance to ensure their coverage is adequate – an important financial wellness tip to make sure an unexpected life event doesn’t derail their goals.
27. Meet with a financial advisor
This straightforward challenge is one of the best financial wellness tips for employees. Meeting with a financial advisor to set realistic goals is a powerful way to stay on track.
28. Attend a financial education class
Whether offered at work or elsewhere, financial education gives employees the knowledge they need to manage their personal finances.
29. Get a finance buddy
Challenge employees to partner with a friend or coworker to stay accountable to their financial goals.
RELATED: How Digital Wellness Programs Are Reshaping Workplace Health
Bill and Debt Reduction
Monthly bills, credit cards, auto loans, and other debt can make it tough to get ahead. Help employees reclaim their money with these financial wellness challenges.
30. Review subscriptions
Encourage employees to review their subscriptions, including streaming TV, and cancel any they don’t need or use.
31. Subscription swap
Alternatively, challenge employees to find free alternatives to paid subscriptions. For example, Tubi and Pluto TV are good alternatives to Netflix and Hulu.
32. Review credit reports
Employees can request their free credit reports, review them for any inaccuracies, then identify ways to improve their credit – which will make them eligible for better rates.
33. Create a debt snowball plan
Challenge employees to create a debt snowball plan in which they pay off their smallest debts first and make minimum payments on larger debts. As smaller debts are paid off, funds go toward the larger debts, snowballing until everything is paid off.
34. Refinance challenge
Employees can look into refinancing their mortgages, auto loans, and student loads to see if it will save money or shave time off repayment.
35. Bill negotiation
Challenge employees to call at least one service provider to negotiate a lower rate. If they can’t get a better rate, encourage them to compare providers and switch to save.
| Bring Financial Wellness to Your Workplace Financially fit employees not only have less stress in their lives, they’re also more loyal, engaged, and productive. WellSteps can help you launch a financial wellness program that leads to happier employees and cost savings for your business. Schedule a demo today. |