Summary of results compiled from 3576 workshops conducted between January 1, 2007 and December 31, 2012 from surveys given to participants 30 days after the workshops to measure what changes they have made since.
Findings:
When employees are stressed-out about their finances, their work can suffer. At Mansfield, Ohio, manufacturer Therm-O-Disc, executives have found that employees who do not focus on their job duties make more errors, increase scrap expense and prevent workgroups from meeting production goals…
Finances are the leading cause of employee stress, which can cost a company significantly in health care costs. Read a case study of one Fortune 500 company’s financial wellness program and how it improved employees’ financial wellness, increased retirement plan participation and reduced health care and other costs to the company’s bottom line.
In a recent survey of nearly 3,300 working Americans to help determine current levels of retirement preparedness, Putnam Investments identified three key variables that drive successful outcomes. The most powerful factor, regardless of income level, is a pattern of disciplined, long-term savings and investing. Households with access to a workplace savings plan and those that work with financial advisors were also significantly better positioned for retirement than their counterparts.
Traditional pension plans, paid family leave, and even the company picnic are all on the decline. Employers have significantly cut many of the benefits they offer to workers over the past five years. Some 77 percent of companies report that benefits offerings have been negatively affected by the slow pace of recovery, according to a Society for Human Resource Management survey of 600 human resources professionals. Here is a look at workplace perks that have declines since 2007.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City assessed the need for financial education by reviewing national trends in personal finance as well as literature on the subject. Their findings indicate that financial education did improve personal financial outcomes. Examples include decreased requests for 401(k) loans and pay advances, increased use of tax-advantaged benefits like flexible spending accounts, and increase participate and contribution levels to retirement savings plans.
As the legal environment is tightening around plan sponsor’s fiduciary responsibilities, we regularly get questions from plan sponsors on what type of education program they need to offer employees to adequately protect themselves against lawsuits from employees claiming they did not receive sufficient information on how to effectively manage their retirement plans.
As the U.S. economy continues to struggle for the third year, findings from the 2010 Stress in America survey paint a picture of an overstressed nation. Feeling the effects of prolonged financial and other recession-related difficulties, Americans are struggling to balance work and home life and make time to engage in healthy behaviors, with stress not only taking a toll on their personal physical health, but also affecting the emotional and physical well-being of their families.
Gallup scientists have been exploring the demands of a life well-lived since the mid-20th century. More recently, in partnership with leading economists, psychologists, and other acclaimed scientists, we began to explore the common elements of wellbeing that transcend countries and cultures.
In our initial research, we asked people what “the best possible future” for them would look like.
As part of this research, Gallup conducted a comprehensive global study of more than 150 countries, giving us a lens into the wellbeing of more than 98% of the world’s population. From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, we asked hundreds of questions about health, wealth, relationships, jobs, and communities. We then compared these results to how people experience their days and evaluate their lives overall.
Weight and finances have been discussed at length on personal finance blogs, but mostly the similarities between money and weight management. There’s been little discussion about the total annual cost of obesity for an individual because most research offers anecdotal evidence of higher costs associated with obesity, but not a dollar amount for a single person.
Last fall George Washington University released a report [PDF] that put a figure to the staggering individual costs of being obese in America. Dr. Avi Dor, report author and professor and director of the health economics program at The George Washington University, and his colleagues quantified indirect costs, direct costs, and lost productivity to arrive at an estimated total cost of being an obese individual. …
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