Dive Brief:

• According to a survey from Jellyvision, which offers virtual online benefits management tools for employees, employees often favor getting financial wellness help -- but it's not necessarily universally seen as a good thing.
• The survey revealed that employees figure if others know they are getting help via financial wellness, they must be doing something wrong managing their money. In other words, it could create a stigma.
• This analysis is particularly interesting, since financial wellness education has been seen lately as a potentially important benefit for employees of all ages.

Dive Insight:

According to a post at Jellyvision's blog, the survey unearthed some interesting things about financial wellness, but two of the most interesting data points were insights into how big of a role fear and embarrassment play in people’s feelings about their company’s financial wellness programs.

For example, among employees who have financial wellness programs available, 60% would not want their coworkers to know if they were to participate, and 45% would not want their company to know. Also, 36% feel there is at least a little stigma associated with utilizing employer financial wellness offerings.

The upside is that online tools, which can be used in a completely private way, were popular. In fact, 49% of the people polled said they would prefer a web-based tool. Jellyvision's advice? Err on the side of offering approachable and positive financial guidance tools, and make sure to offer tools that allow your employees a high degree of privacy.