Unum has introduced an online financial education programme for its 800 UK-based employees.
The financial education programme, which was launched on 6 March 2017 and is provided by Nudge, has been implemented to align with Unum’s existing wellbeing strategy, which supports employees’ financial, emotional and physical wellbeing.
The programme uses both personal and reward-related data, such as what benefits employees have selected, to deliver a personalised approach to financial education. Employees receive ‘nudges’ or notifications around relevant life or financial events, highlighting useful online information and articles that correspond to an individual’s specific financial circumstances.
Employees can increase the level of personalisation for their financial education by providing additional details to their online profile, for example adding children or adult dependant information, specifying their interests, or setting financial goals and realistic plans to achieve them.
Since the introduction of the programme, there has been 2,880 page views on the financial education platform, with an average of 7.74 pages visited per session, and 191 interests have been selected by employees to further personalise their financial education. Nine in 10 (91%) employees engaged with the initial launch ‘nudge’.
Tina Odell, benefits manager at Unum, said: “We have a global vision to create a culture of wellbeing for our people, and the launch of financial education through Nudge is a key component of this plan. It’s critical we practise what we preach, and enable our employees to create and maintain good behaviours around their personal finances.
“In order to fulfil our vision, we had to ensure that our financial wellbeing strategy wasn’t a one off exercise and would integrate with our other wellbeing initiatives. It needed to cover all financial areas, not just pensions. Most importantly, we wanted it to benefit all of our people, regardless of their salary or personal circumstances.”