FINANCIAL WELLNESS
Once you start seeing the results of your work, you will learn that you are making
launched presentations each quarter that focused on pre-tax savings, what to do as you get closer to retirement—a lot of different topics that were indi - vidualized for our employees.” Kathleen Kelly, Retirement & Wealth Management Services managing partner at MMA who worked with Reilly to imple- ment Polaris’ financial wellness program, says that from a corpo- rate perspective, companies are smart to invest in robust finan - cial wellness programs. “There is a financial interest in ensuring your workforce is financially fit,” she says. “If you don’t have a financially prepared workforce, it leads to employees who have higher financial stress, higher workers’ compensation rates and higher medical claims.”
was a tall order. The company not only had to implement a financial wellness program, it also had to come up with a new internal communications strat- egy. This was the first big hurdle MMA and Polaris tackled. The effort began with the launch of a newsletter, North Star News, that contained information about the new financial well- ness program, along with other news and events happening within the company. The news- letter also allowed Reilly and her team to monitor which stories employees were clicking on to understand what they were most interested in reading. They also found ways to reach employees who do not have access to email, such as ensuring information was being shared at team meetings or posted on bulletin boards. Finally, they snail-mailed a hefty 26-page financial guide to each of the company’s employees that explained complex money issues in an easy-to-understand way. “In the benefits world, we tend to use a lot of terminology that someone who doesn’t specialize
in finances may not understand,” Reilly says. “We explained finan - cial subjects in a way that was comfortable to the average per- son. We mailed it to everyone’s homes knowing that finan- cial decisions go beyond the employee and to their spouses or families.” The guide also directed employ- ees to more resources and tools, such as retirement calculators, to take some guesswork out of employees’ financial decisions. “The new communications strat- egy made it possible to reach and engage more employees more than just a simple email did,” Reilly says. “We are leaving employees behind when we only invest in emails. We had to think creatively about how to commu- nicate with all of our employees.”
COMMUNICATING FINANCIAL WELLNESS
Before Polaris could equip its employees with the financial information it needed to succeed, it had to ensure that information would reach them. With roughly 18,000 employees in the U.S.— from the engineers working to develop vehicles to front line workers turning that vision into a reality, plus those that help Polaris continue to grow and operate, like sales, IT, market - ing, HR, finance and more—this
THE IMPACT OF INFORMED DECISIONS
Since Polaris implemented its financial wellness program, it has received rave reviews from employees. And those who have benefited from the program rec - ommend it to their colleagues.
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YOUR FUTURE IS LIMITLESS.™
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