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By Jean-Philippe Provost, Mercer Canada
Special to the Financial Independence Hub
For Canadians, wealth management and financial decisions can represent an endless source of stress: whether putting money aside for an important purchase, paying off debt, or saving for retirement. Increasingly, this stress is interfering with workplace health and productivity.
A company’s most productive asset is their people: when employees are unhealthy, financially or physically, the organization as a whole suffers. Helping employees feel confident about wealth management matters and guiding them towards financial wellness is not just a nice to have: it is a need to have. A healthy workforce means a healthy company: and a healthy bottom line.
The impacts of financial stress on the workforce
At Mercer, we have spent years studying the workplace trends, the evolving realities and the challenges faced by workers in Canada. Our most recent research into Canadians’ financial wellness found that if employers help employees achieve financial wellness, they too will reap the rewards, in terms of increased productivity, reduced absenteeism and improved morale.
For example, our study showed that financial and physical health are tightly intertwined. With only 39% of employees with a low level of financial wellness reporting being in excellent or very good health (compared to 81% at the highest level), it is easy to see how this impacts entire organizations.
Additionally, employees who don’t feel financially confident also often spend much of their time worrying, including while at work and are also less likely to pay attention to the features of their workplace benefits and the importance of their employee compensation package.
Employers can and should help their employees successfully manage the steps towards achieving financial confidence. Providing easy-to-access resources to help to their workforce secure retirement savings and manage investments can lead to greater employee satisfaction. It can also strengthen their employee value proposition and help to attract and retain talents.
Reducing employees’ financial stresses
The most effective resources should be flexible enough to help all levels of employees meet their financial goals and milestones throughout their careers.
According to our research, worries about finances cut across all income levels and most employees over age 50 don’t have a concrete strategy for achieving retirement security. This is why it’s important to offer resources that can support employees from when they are just starting out their career to when they’re getting ready to retire and want to be sure they have enough to enjoy life.
Introducing a solution
In lights of these challenges facing employers and employees, Mercer has joined forces with Wealthsimple to create Mercer Invest Wise™: an easy-to-use digital saving and investing solution for the Canadian workforce to manage their personal finances, throughout their career and retirement.
Employees are seeking a modern, engaging experience and fees that are a fraction of the cost of the average mutual fund, allowing them to achieve their financial goals faster. Mercer’s 70 years of investment expertise has gone into building the diversified portfolios available through this solution, giving employers confidence that their employees’ savings and retirement money is being expertly managed.
Additionally, a platform that delivers Wealthsimple’s innovative digital capability makes it super simple for all Canadians to grow money like the world’s most sophisticated investors.
Learn more about Financial Wellness and how Mercer Invest Wise can help on Mercer.ca/investwise
Jean-Philippe Provost is a Senior Partner at Mercer, where he leads the Wealth business in Canada. JP, together with his team, is tasked with developing new solutions that will help Canadian companies better address their business needs. Prior to this role, JP was based in New York and led Mercer’s International Consulting business globally. He has worked in Canada, Europe and the United States. In various previous roles, he has assisted multinationals optimize their retirement and benefits programs and spending. He has had the opportunity to work with many fortune 500 companies. JP graduated from Laval University with a Bachelor degree in Actuarial Science. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries.
