November is Financial Literacy Month in Canada and there’s still plenty of time to use that as a rallying point to capture the attention of employees.
In fact, it’s always a good time to help normalize conversations about financial health—for the sake of both employees and employers. “We all know that financial health has a direct impact on our mental health,” says Cary Brunett, Service Manager, Sutton Benefits and Pension in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. “If we’re struggling financially, we are not well mentally. Financial stress impacts an employee’s productivity; it’s incredible how much it can take a person away from their work in the course of the day.”
Survey after survey demonstrates the connection between financial health and mental health. The latest results from the annual Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey, released in September, again puts personal finances as the leading source of stress, unchanged since 2018. Moreover, the number has steadily ticked upward in the past three years, with a new high of 43 percent of plan members saying it is their biggest source of stress.
Almost half (47 percent) of Canadians grade their skills in personal finance as an A or B, according to CPA Canada, which leaves many who would probably benefit from help. Brunett and Katrina Sinclair, Insurance Advisor at Davis Benefits and Pensions Ltd. in White Rock, B.C., offer plan sponsors the following top tips to help advance financial-literacy levels.
1 – Take advantage of ready resources
Lean into your benefits advisor and insurance provider to map out a year-round plan that incorporates readily available resources, including interactive tools, to educate and engage plan members.
“It’s really heartwarming to see the number of different types of things that are coming out now,” says Brunett. “There are many different providers that are offering financial education and I think that those services are going to go a long way to assisting with those literacy levels.”
“Insurance carriers have a lot of information built into their employee portals—it’s a matter of knowing where to point plan members,” adds Sinclair. “It gives them a starting point to do some reading and set goals, such as buying a house, going back to school or investing in RRSPs.”
And it’s not too late to download some of the resources produced by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, including a promotional toolkit and financial calculators, to make some noise during national Financial Literacy Month in November.
“With the communications that are out there employers can work with their advisors to help support employees,” summarizes Sinclair.
2 – Provide a range of reliable information
Many plan members, particularly younger ones, may be getting a lot of financial information from social media, such as TikTok and YouTube, says Sinclair. This information comes with a lot of bias—and often falls short on details, she says. Advisors can guide plan sponsors to fill in these educational holes by offering diverse, vetted information channels, whether through expert speakers at a lunch and learn, brochures, emails or a website.
3 – Customize financial education
Tailor the content and approach to improve the odds of catching the attention of employees at different stages of their life. “It’s all about working with an advisor to figure out what engagement model suits their demographic; a client will know their people best,” says Sinclair.
Timing can also make a difference. “Maybe it’s RRSP season, maybe it’s the end of the year, or maybe production is slow,” says Sinclair. “It’s about knowing what type of strategy works for that team and demographic and deploying it accordingly.”
4 – Be supportive—at arm’s length
While it’s important for plan sponsors to facilitate reliable and reputable financial education, delivery needs to be from an independent third party. “It’s key that employees are receiving that message from somebody who’s not their employer,” says Brunett. “When the employer is telling them, ‘Oh, you’ve got to do this,’ employees just don’t receive it as well.” That’s where advisors can play a pivotal role to improve buy-in, she adds.
5 – Reach out to new Canadians
Keeping in mind that Canada has one of the highest rates of immigration in the world, it’s worthwhile to include communications that speak directly to employees who are new to Canada. “They tend to have many questions about the differences between Canada’s systems and the systems they are familiar with back home,” says Brunett. Face-to-face meetings of two to four people work best, and whenever possible a co-worker who is not as new to Canada is part of the group to assist with translation and serve as an ongoing resource or liaison after the meeting. “We also provide multiple ways to reach us directly including phone, email, links to our calendars and QR codes to make bookings,” she says.
6 – Leverage the EAP
Sinclair suggests discussing the value of an employee assistance program (EAP) when launching a group retirement program with a client. She says EAPs offer many financial literacy tools that can help plan members manage their debt, budget and plan for the future. And counselling services built into the EAP, when communicated appropriately, can also help with the mental health fallout brought on by financial stress. “You want to make sure, when you have a group retirement plan, that you have the additional supports built in so that it works properly and it drives value for the employees,” she says.