Guide to Employee Financial Wellness

Step 6: Modify Your Solution Based on Evaluation and Feedback

Now that you have introduced your program(s) and have gathered some data around your success measures, it is time to take a close look at what you can do to improve. First, revisit your evaluation questions and ask yourself some questions.

Why Did Employees Use — or not Use — the Financial Wellness Programs?

Once you identify who is using the programs, you should investigate the “why” behind it. Was it a communications problem? Perhaps news of the program failed to reach a certain group of employees. Or did the program not match the needs of some employees? Be sure to keep in mind which employees you were aiming to support. Are you reaching your target audience? Again, your frontline managers can be a good resource here.

Diagnosing Problems

Geraldo’s warehousing company recently started offering short-term loans to its employees. Three months after the loan program was introduced, Geraldo analyzed the characteristics of employees who had been using the loans. To his surprise, he found that almost no one from the first shift had taken out a loan, but some of the workers from the second shift and plenty of workers from the third shift had. Overall program use was pretty good, but it was not evenly distributed across the shifts.

When Geraldo asked the first and third shift managers about the program, he got a better idea of what was going on. First shift managers hadn’t received the latest information about signing up for the loan program and therefore didn’t pass it along to first shift employees. Third shift managers explained that many of their workers had recently had their hours cut. Workers from the third shift were taking out loans to make ends meet.

With this new information, Geraldo was able to focus on getting program materials to first shift managers and come up with a way to help third shift workers pick up more hours.

What are Employees Saying About the Programs?

Hopefully, your employees have told you what they liked about the programs and what could have been better. Ask for their input and then consider their feedback so you know what to continue and what to improve.

After thinking critically about what went well and what did not, you are prepared to make adjustments that will improve program success.

What you’ll have in the end:

  • An inventory of who uses the programs, who does not, and why
  • A list of what employees like about the programs and what they do not like
  • Ideas for improvement
Onto Step Seven