More Employers Providing Financial Education as Employee Demand Grows

Financial literacy proponents are buzzing over preliminary data showing the growing demand among employees for financial education programs in the workplace to enable workers to better understand and manage their personal financial affairs. The survey report entitled “Financial Education for Today’s Workforce: 2014 Survey Results” details approximately fifty percent of employers reporting a higher demand for financial literacy initiatives in the workplace during the past five years. Moreover, nearly seventy percent of employers currently provide financial education to their workforce.

The survey was conducted by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans and several hundred International Foundation member organizations throughout North America participated in the survey. The study also found that approximately two in five organizations deem it to be the organization’s obligation to provide education relating to retirement, benefits, savings and overall money management.

Other findings from the survey include the fact that employers understand the significance of offering educational programs, tools and other resources to enable their employees to make better informed decisions with respect to their personal financial affairs. For this reason, many companies and organizations are providing their employees with a broad range of resources to boost their financial literacy.

The results of the survey are consistent with the growing trend of greater financial literacy programs offered in the workplace in many countries throughout the world, as employees are becoming more empowered to take more ownership over their knowledge of budgeting, saving and managing their financial lives. As this trend continues, financial literacy professionals contend that this will bode very well for the future of the financial education industry in the months and years ahead.