By Courtney Lindberg,
Director of Innovation, Arborbrook Consultants
For over a decade now we have been working with employers that have sought help stewarding their businesses. One of their highest demands has been to attract, retain and provide for their employees. Since COVID, we’ve seen greater demand for better solutions and advice.
Our friend Chris Allen, of Always About People, shared his research from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, noting that employee departure trends we’re seeing are not a new phenomenon. In fact, this is a trend that’s been growing for 20 years, and dramatically so for the last 10. Counter to what most of us are hearing, COVID actually slowed the rate of departure (by choice), with the theory being that employees paused their actions until their world returned to some kind of normalcy.
However, like hard times often do, many of us have gained new perspectives of what we value, find important and priorities. Employers are now trying to respond to those changes with new compensation packages. This isn’t a new idea. When the game becomes more competitive, you have to find new ways to win.
We might be a little biased—we are a Financial Advisory firm after all, but we believe the greatest opportunities for employers, and employees, come back to solid, foundational advice and planning. What that translates to for employers is Financial Wellness, a benefit whose purpose is providing employees with resources (vary by provider) to help them improve their own financial world.
The challenge we encountered was discovering that most of these “solutions” are just programs designed to sell the employer or employee something in the long run. (Example: Annuities) Most have the opportunity for members to learn something, even if they have to do all the work on their own. But, what was out there just didn’t live up to our standards. We couldn’t advise leaders to use platforms we wouldn’t use ourselves.
So, what do you do when you need a solution, but can’t find what you’re looking for? Go to the One who does know. Through much prayer and years of trials and errors, we worked with several different partners to develop our own; a financial wellness benefit that’s goal was not sales, but actually guiding employees towards better financial stewardship. (Imagine that.)
To do this well meant we would have to collaborate with someone in the Christian financial ministry world that was a trusted source for leading others well, whose focus wasn’t sales, but souls. This felt like working the mailroom and trying to get the attention of the CEO. How on God’s green earth was this going to happen?
It is nothing less than an answer to prayer to be connected with who we are.
Our hope in sharing this journey is a gentle reminder to do our best to see past the problem, to the solution, and take action to do what we can, when we can. If we can all do that a little more, I think we’ll find something we’ve been missing.
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