We spend a lot of time talking about employee’s financial wellness, and that financial wellness is no longer something that would be a nice employee benefit to have.  It has become an essential employee benefit.

But it is also essential for you, the employer!

You were wise to include PayActiv as a financial wellness benefit, because it saved you from making two fatal errors.

Error #1 Avoided

There is no wellness without financial wellness.  Finance is at the core of every individual’s psyche.  If a worker feels financially secure, they are more engaged at work. If they do not feel financially secure, they will be distracted.  The psychological and emotional toll of constantly chasing a paycheck, while bills pile up, are significant and ultimately affect work performance. 

That translates to productivity.  A decline in productivity makes you less competitive in the market.

Psychological burdens become physical burdens.  There is no question that mind and body are linked.  The physical burden will translate into an increased reliance on health care.  If the employer provides that healthcare, it means increased usage and that leads to increased premiums and reduced coverage for the workforce you need to keep you in the game.

During the pandemic, furloughed workers have fallen into despair.  Savings have been depleted, social isolation has broken worker spirits, and the prospect of returning to work without a sense that their employer cares will hamper your workforce even more.

That’s the picture from inside your company.  Now let’s turn to your customers.

Error #2 Avoided

There is a movement afoot in the corporate world that you have wisely embraced, whether you know it or not.

Conscious Capitalism is real, it is expanding, and it is becoming the seal of approval required by consumers.

Just look to the Business Roundtable, a group created in 1978 consisting of over 200 of the largest corporations.  This isn’t some group of anti-capitalists with a political agenda.  We’re talking mega-corporations.

Beginning in 1997, the Business Roundtable’s Principles of Corporate Governance always included the following statement: “The paramount duty of management and of boards of directors is to the corporation’s stockholders. The interests of other stakeholders are relevant as a derivative of the duty to stockholders.”

Last year, the Business Roundtable made a change. “It has become clear that this language on corporate purpose does not accurately describe the ways in which we and our fellow CEOs endeavor every day to create value for all our stakeholders, whose long-term interests are inseparable.” 

The language changes were subtle but significant, in which this influential group of CEOs effectively acknowledged that there were intangible elements of corporate operation that served long-term stakeholder value.  In other words, it wasn’t only net income that mattered.

Your stakeholders are paying attention to your workplace culture.  

If you don’t think that’s the case, then look at the lousy PR that some major companies endure for poor worker treatment.  Compare that harsh media coverage to that of Starbucks, which receives glowing coverage because it treats employees as partners. 

PR matters.  Optics matters.  Consumers have choices and they are increasingly choosing Conscious Capitalist companies for their business.  There are smartphone apps that rate companies, large and small, based on Conscious Capitalism and Business Roundtable principles, as well as those carrying B-Corp and Public Benefit Corporation certification (PayActiv has both).

“Going Green” was originally an approach for companies that had a political agenda. Not anymore. If a company isn’t “green”, or “sustainable”, it loses business to those that are, because that’s what consumers are signaling to the market. 

The next big move will be companies taking the financial wellness of their employees seriously. You made the right choice to offer it, so you will not be left behind, while your competitors will go the way of the Dodo.  That’s because financial wellness has become the must-need benefit for 2021 and beyond.

By using PayActiv, employers are tending to their own financial wellness, along with that of their employees.