这se two methods can be used in either order or even simultaneously. The most effective approaches to diagnosing needs combine both methods to give you the most holistic look at your employees’ financial health. Where you choose to start depends on several factors, including what kinds of data are available and how easy they are for you to access, your organization’s data analytics capabilities, and your readiness to engage directly with employees about financial health in a survey.

It can sometimes be helpful to start by reviewing existing data, because you can then use those insights to inform the survey design. For example, by looking at your 401(k) plan data, you might find that a large percentage of your employees have taken out loans from their retirement accounts. This could be a sign that they lack emergency savings that can help them cover spikes in expenses, or that they do not have other affordable loan options due to a poor credit history. You can then add questions to your survey to help answer these questions.

On the other hand, there can also be benefits to starting with a survey. A financial health survey provides an opportunity to communicate to your employees that their financial health is a priority for the company and to explain initiatives you are planning or currently have underway.

您可以使用调查更深入地探究对公司重要的特定领域。Additional questions can help you uncover root causes of employee pain points identified in your data analysis, such as a high number of 401(k) loans, and shed light on blind spots you are likely to have as an employer, such as your employees’ debt. A financial health survey can also be a great way to gather feedback from employees on current or potential benefit offerings.

One useful resource to consider for additional questions is the财务健康脉搏. Through our annual Pulse survey, the Financial Health Network offers ongoing snapshots of how people in America manage their finances. You can even benchmark your employees against the national population bydownloading the Pulse dataset.

For many HR leaders, asking employees about their finances may feel uncomfortable at first. While there is plenty of evidence that employees are looking to their employers for help, sending out an employee financial health survey requires a thoughtful approach to communications.⁴

Here are some tips for deploying a successful survey:

• 识别合适的车辆. Consider whether to field a standalone survey or incorporate financial health questions into your existing wellness or employee engagement surveys. There may be limitations to the number of questions that you can incorporate into existing surveys, but doing so might increase response rates.
• 考虑激励措施。Most employers do not provide incentives to complete financial health surveys, but some do. Prizes can be cost-effective incentives. In addition, linking the survey completion to a broader well-being incentive program may be a good way to drive completion and engagement.
• Appeal to company values.考虑将调查定位为对员工福祉的更广泛承诺的一部分，包括身体，精神和财务健康。（当然，您还应该准备分享公司实际上为员工的福祉所做的事情。）高级领导层从公司对员工福祉的承诺的沟通也可以提高响应率。同样，与员工进行沟通，您真正希望他们的意见为未来计划和利益的设计提供信息，这可以提供强大的动力。
• 致力于隐私。Be transparent with employees about how you plan to use survey data and assure them their privacy will be protected. If applicable, emphasize that survey data will only be analyzed in the aggregate, and not tied back to any individual employee. If you plan to link individual survey responses to other administrative data, such as healthcare claims, or track change for individuals over time, use a unique identifier to link the data sources so that specific individuals cannot be re-identified. When analyzing data by demographics or job characteristics, be sure to analyze the data in groups of no fewer than five employees to protect anonymity. Using a third-party platform such asAttuneto distribute the survey can also increase employees’ confidence that their privacy will be protected.