Frank Dombroski started FlexWage Solutions in 2010 to assist employees on their path from financial need to financial independence. We asked him about the business sense behind promoting employee engagement and well-being programs in the workplace.
Frank Dombroski
Founder and CEO, FlexWage Solutions
Can you describe the connection between employee engagement and well-being?
For many years, we’ve known there are very real impacts to employee retention, employee satisfaction, and employee productivity when employees are stressed about — and thereby distracted by — financial issues in their lives. These impacts naturally extend to their level of engagement with their job and their employer.
When employees are stressed financially, they aren’t engaged and they don’t perform at their peak on the job. As engagement drops, absenteeism increases and, sometimes, employees either vacate their jobs or seek employment with an employer who will offer benefits that can have a material and positive impact on their financial situation.
What is the business case for investing in employee well-being programs and benefits?
Simply put, employees who achieve financial stability have more energy and focus for their jobs. When that stability comes through the employer, via a suite of financial wellness benefits, employees tend to be more loyal and more productive.
What are some key ways employers have been able to boost employee engagement, and where has this made a real impact?
When we started this mission back in 2010, it took a lot of convincing and education to get employers to embrace how this problem impacts their employees, and then respectively how that impacts their business. There has been a lot of good research by consumer advocacy groups and government entities, like the CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau), in measuring and demonstrating that financially stressed employees are not as productive. Equally, there is now ample research in the market showing how financial well-being programs make positive impacts on employee lives and improves engagement and retention.
More and more, employers are turning to financial wellness solution suites like FlexWage OnDemand Pay and Sum180 to provide modern-era tools that help. Financial well-being programs — especially those that include an earned wage access component — now have a proven track record in driving productivity metrics. There is no doubt that these programs offer a better quality of life for employees by reducing the financial hardships and stresses they can face. And that, in turn, makes people better on the job.
