Prudential’s Financial Wellness Program Offers a New Option for Employee Assistance Program

Aimed at Easing Financial Stress and Enhancing Sense of Security

TAIPEI, July 16, 2019 — The cross-border movement of talents nowadays has made employee retention a challenge for enterprises. According to The State of Financial Wellness in Taiwan by The Prudential Life Insurance Company of Taiwan Inc. (Prudential of Taiwan, POT), nearly 70% of the surveyed Taiwanese stated that it would be very helpful if their employers provided finance-related courses or resources. As high as 77% of them believe that such a practice will increase their willingness to continue working in the company. Financial Wellness has become a new trend in the Employee Assistance Program (EAP). 104 Corporation, an active EAP advocator, and POT, the first insurer to promote Financial Wellness concepts in Taiwan, co-hosted a seminar on the topic of “Underestimated Employee Risk across Taiwan.” The seminar focused on the impact of “sense of security” and “financial wellness” in the workplace, which is often neglected, and is aimed at helping employers enhance sensitivity to such issues, and at retaining talents for the company and for Taiwan in a timelier manner.

Louis Heng, Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer of POT, pointed out that financial issues (34%) is the major source of stress for Taiwanese people, according to The State of Financial Wellness in Taiwan. Such stress does not only affect individuals and families, but is also extended to the workplace and impacts work performance. In addition to either shouldering such stress alone or collectively with family, the survey respondents also have expectations for the companies they work at.

A supporter of talent development and caretaker of employees’ work-life balance, 104 Corporation took the lead in joining the Financial Wellness Program. Weber Chung, Vice President and Chief HR Officer of 104 Corporation, says that in order to attract and retain talent, the company introduced EAP as a means to ensure balanced work-life development on four aspects including financial consulting, psychological counseling, health care and legal service. He believes that in addition to benefit packages such as regular pay raise and employee stock option plan, the promotion of financial wellness programs within companies can help employees improve livelihood of the household and plan for retirement goals. The impact of such improvements can be seen on employee performance and positive climate at the workplace. The Financial Wellness Program has thus become a new EAP trend that provides employees  “sense of security.”
 In addition to a work environment that enables sense of security, Financial Wellness is impactful on the enterprises’ effort to enhance employees’ productivity and talent retention. Doctor Claire Teng specializing in psychological counseling mentioned in the Seminar that when enterprises attempt to support low-performing employees, the topic of “financial stress” is an important topic for employers to initiate a real dialogue and to provide assistance with employees. However, the importance of such a topic is often times underestimated or even neglected. Doctor Teng suggests that achieving financial wellness will fulfill the essential needs of employees’ lives and empower them to keep moving forward.  The Program will allow HR departments to offer employees adequate support, and can further extend the employment relations from the public area of work to deeper care for employees. Such a practice will help the companies understand their employees better, and will facilitate the employees’ sharing of their concerns and thus opportunity to solve the issues and achieve better performance.

The “Financial Wellness Program” 

helps employers and associations to enhance their employees’ 

“sense of security” and “financial wellness”

In response to the needs of the Taiwanese people, POT launched a series of “Financial Wellness” programs for companies and associations. The programs encompass topics of Financial Planning, Risk Planning, Investment Planning and Retirement Planning, and aim at providing in-depth yet easy-to-understand information to attendees in a structured way. Through systematic acquisition of correct financial knowledge, company employees and association members will become more capable of managing their day-to-day financial needs, big or small. They will also feel more secure in achieving their financial goals for the future, which helps them focus more on work. In all, the program not only helps advance the long-term welfare of employees but is also beneficial for the common good of the employers and employees alike.

Prudential has been committed to delivering financial security and peace of mind to individuals and families since 1875. POT earnestly invites all companies and organizations to join its Financial Wellness education program to enhance employees’ financial literacy — to take them forward towards financial well-being in a rapidly changing world. With the guidance from the program, employees will be able to assess their current financial situation and identify solutions to take steps to achieve their financial goals. For more information about Financial Wellness, please go to http://finwell.prulife.com.tw.

The State of Financial Wellness in Taiwan is based on the survey conducted for POT by Nielsen Taiwan, among representative sample of 1,002 Taiwanese adults aged 20 to 70. Data was collected using an online survey for those under age 55 and face-to-face interviews for those over age 55. To ensure that the results are representative of the market, data was weighted using age, gender, region, and annual household income. The survey was fielded between November 27 and December 10, 2018. The margin of error for this study is +/- 3.1%.