PLANADVISER - Spring 2023 - 13

and/or employee level, is a key differentiator,
Pratt agrees. " The best way to win this business
is to ask important questions early on about
the 'pulse' of the employee base, the cultural
climate. We want to understand, what are
the engines in our wellness program that will
[resonate] most with those employees? So we'll
ask an employer, 'What matters most to your
team?' That open-ended question is a treasure
hunt: From the answer to that question, it's
rare that we don't have a blueprint for how to
meet-and exceed-expectations. "
When employees start Paris International's
" The best way to win this
business is to ask important
questions early on about the
'pulse' of the employee base,
the cultural climate. "
financial wellness program and go onto its site
for the first time, a five-minute onboarding survey asks them
questions such as their top three reasons for participating in
the program. That then allows for customizing the coming
financial wellness content to the individual's needs. The
program sets a specific goal for the individual according to
her biggest financial focus-e.g., building emergency savings.
Then, as the employee achieves that goal, it will suggest a
new goal pertaining to another of her priorities.
It is best to decide upfront on a financial wellness program's
scope and the topics to cover with a particular employee
group, rather than offering it a huge menu of topics to choose
from, Pratt says. " There are plenty of studies that talk about
'decision paralysis': When people have too many choices, it
creates decision paralysis and inaction, " he says. OneDigital
surveys key stakeholders such as human resource leadership
when customizing its Financial Academy program, to zero
in on key financial stressors-e.g., student loans-affecting
that employee base. " It's not very potent to go in with a whole
array of topics for employees, " he adds. " We make sure that
we survey, very granularly, the stakeholders from the get-go. "
" Our program's biggest differentiator is that we are a
process, not a product, " Jamail says. " Everybody has a financial
wellness curriculum, and everybody has the technology
tools. We have a technology platform, but we don't lead with
that, because that's not how you solve the issue. Our differentiator
is the coaches who work with people one on one
and how we manage that coaching process. "
Different by Deliverables
Hub tailors the participant deliverables in its FinPath
program to each individual's needs, Jamail says. " People can
get a summary financial plan, and many of our coaches who
meet one on one with folks also provide 'homework' to help
address the issues that they're discussing with them. " For
example, someone struggling to pay off credit card debt may
be asked to " calendar " his budgeting: take a recent bank statement
and break down spending over that month. " Then that
person can talk with the coach to see where his paycheck is
going and to map out a monthly budget, " Jamail says.
Hub's program aims to distinguish itself partly by giving
people a step-by-step process to deal with their key financial
stressors, Jamail says. Program participants are asked
initially to do a brief self-assessment that pinpoints their
biggest financial priority; then Hub's system identifies
where that person stands, over five levels, from surviving to
thriving, on that issue. " Based on your initial assessment, it
may tell you, 'You're surviving on this issue, and we need to
work on these three things,' " he explains. " We give you ideas
of specific things to improve as you progress through each
level, and our coaches work on them with you. "
The sponsor deliverables in a financial wellness program
center largely on reporting, and OneDigital measures the
success of its Financial Academy program at a client
primarily through aggregated employee engagement data,
Pratt says. " We're able to tell how many people engaged
with the program, what topics they engaged on, and the
level of engagement via the different modes of communication, "
he says. " We can also benchmark that against a
client's industry peers and sector peers. "
Paris International uses its financial wellness platform
partly as a " wellness CRM, " meaning a contact management
system that records each interaction with every program
participant, Paris says. " Then, every six months, we're delivering
to the employer [aggregated] information on, 'Here's
what's happening, and here is what your people are talking
to us about.' We're able to quantify for employers exactly
what we do for their people. "
Advisers should also be prepared to discuss with plan
sponsor clients and employees what happens with the data
inputs. Paris' firm does not use data to try to sell additional
products and services to program participants, he says. " Any
one of the off-the-shelf, technology-based solutions might be
a good technology, but [the provider offering the program]
owns the data on these individuals and everything they do
as part of the program. The data we accumulate is strictly
used to deliver our wellness program. " -Judy Ward
Participants | Spring 2023 | planadviser.com 13
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