Employee Benefits | Building a Benefits Strategy for Financial Resilience

Financial wellbeing benefits have traditionally centered on a long-term goal: retirement. But employees’ financial lives don’t begin at retirement. Many are balancing immediate priorities, including healthcare expenses, debt, emergency savings, and everyday living costs. PwC’s 2026 Employee Financial Wellness Survey found that 59% of employees were currently stressed about their finances.

For many employees, the immediate concern is not how to optimize retirement savings. It’s how to absorb the next unexpected expense. More than half of employees surveyed by PwC had less than $5,000 in emergency savings, and 30% had less than $1,000. Nearly half said their compensation was not keeping pace with rising costs.

Employers can’t solve every financial challenge employees face. They can, however, consider whether their benefits strategy helps employees create stability today while continuing to prepare for tomorrow. That means looking beyond retirement readiness and considering the financial pressures that can make long-term planning difficult in the first place.

Think Beyond Retirement Readiness

Retirement benefits remain an important foundation of financial wellbeing. In fact, Bank of America’s 2026 Workplace Benefits Report found that 73% of employees felt on track for retirement, up 6% from 2025. At the same time, 75% cited the cost of living as a challenge to their financial security. Both realities can exist at once.

An employee can contribute to a retirement plan and still have difficulty handling an unexpected medical bill, car repair, or household expense. PwC found that 44% of employees used credit cards for necessities they otherwise could not afford. These immediate pressures can make it harder to focus on longer-term financial goals.

The opportunity for employers is to view financial wellbeing as a continuum. Emergency savings, healthcare spending, debt management, retirement planning, and financial education don’t have to function as separate conversations. Together, they can help employees build a more stable financial foundation.

Build a More Complete Financial Safety Net

A financial resilience strategy will look different for every workforce. Depending on employee needs and available resources, employers might consider:

• Emergency savings support that gives employees a structured way to prepare for unexpected expenses.
• HSAs and FSAs, when available, paired with education that helps employees understand how and when to use them.
• Financial education or coaching that addresses budgeting, debt, savings, credit, and long-term planning.
• Student loan or education assistance for employees balancing debt with other financial priorities.
• Existing vendor resources through retirement providers, EAPs, health plans, or other benefits that employees may not realize are available.

The answer is not necessarily to add more programs. Morgan Stanley’s 2026 workplace research found that 79% of employees believed their company needed to do a better job helping them understand how to maximize their financial benefits. Employers may have an opportunity to improve the value of what they already offer before expanding the benefits menu. Information alone may not be enough if employees cannot translate it into action.

Make Resources Easier to Navigate

Financial priorities also change throughout an employee’s career. Emergency savings and debt management can be among the leading concerns for early-career employees, while retirement savings become more prominent later in employees’ careers. This makes a one-size-fits-all approach to financial education less useful.

Employers can use employee surveys, benefits questions, utilization data, and workforce demographics to identify where employees need the most support. The objective is not to collect unnecessary details about employees’ personal finances. It is to understand broad workforce needs well enough to make benefits and communication more relevant.

Communication can also be organized around the problems employees are trying to solve rather than around benefit names. Consider categories such as: I have an unexpected expense. I need help managing debt. I want to save more. I am concerned about healthcare costs. I am preparing for retirement. That shift can make a complex benefits package easier to navigate.

Focus on Financial Resilience, Not More Benefits

Financial wellbeing also matters to the employment relationship. Morgan Stanley’s 2026 study found that 91% of employees would consider switching jobs for benefits that better help them reach their goals, while 85% said they would feel more invested in staying with an employer that offered financial benefits tailored to their needs.

That doesn’t mean employers need to chase every new financial benefit. A stronger strategy begins by understanding employee needs, evaluating existing resources, filling meaningful gaps, and making support easier to understand and use.

Financial resilience grows when employees have practical tools, useful guidance, and a clearer path for managing today’s pressures while preparing for tomorrow.

Originally featured in UBA’s September 2026 HR Elements Newsletter.