Providing financial wellness benefits to employees makesgood business sense for a couple reasons. Financial stresses like saving for college orretirement can hamper employee productivity, so helping employeestake control of their financial wellbeing can help alleviate someof that anxiety.

Providing creative benefits that go beyond 401(k) plans, likestudent loan repayment or debt management, can differentiate yourcompany and show your employees you care about their lives outsideof the workplace. This is especially important for small businessesthat must retain top talent in order to remain competitive.

It’s not easy for most companies to recognize the value ofproviding financial wellness benefits. The challenge isgetting employees to enroll in them.

401(k) plans are the most prevalent financial wellness benefit,offered by more than three-quarters of employers, but employeeparticipation has hovered at 50 percent for the past twodecades.

Fortunately, there are steps HR and benefits managers can taketo encourage more employees to participate. It comes down toeducation -- making employees aware these benefits exist andshowing how it would positively impact their financial lives.

Use the 401k workforce adoption as a benchmark

401(k) plans are far from universal, but they are the mostpopular financial benefit for a few reasons. For one, they offertax benefits that are unmatched by other financial benefits:employees can contribute with “pretax” dollars, and any matchingcontributions an employer makes are also tax-free.

While most other financial benefits lack comparable taxbenefits, there are a couple bipartisan bills being considered byCongress that would change this.

The Employer Participation in Student Loan Assistance Act wouldallow employers to contribute up to $5,250 toward employees’student loans, tax-free. Similarly, the Boost Saving for CollegeAct would enable employers to match up to $1,000 to an employee’s529 plan, excluded from his or her income.

Another reason why 401(k) plans have become so prevalent is thatemployees are often enrolled by default. Which brings us to…

Automate enrollment

Automatically enrolling employees in anything -- especiallywhere money is concerned -- can be a delicate matter. Aside from401(k)s, it also shouldn’t be one-size-fits-all in most cases.

However, it would make sense to enroll an employee in a 529 planwhen he or she takes parental leave. Or, if an employee has beentaking advantage of tuition reimbursement or other educationalbenefits, he or she could be automatically enrolled in student loanrepayment benefits upon graduating.

When automatically enrolling employees in any financialbenefits, it’s important to communicate the rationale and benefitsto the employee, and to provide a clear way to opt out. However,many of these employees probably would have enrolled in thisbenefit anyway but lacked the time or awareness about it.

Take every opportunity possible to educate employees aboutfinancial benefits

HR and benefits managers need to explain to employees whyenrolling in financial benefits is so important. The best way toshow the value of financial benefits is to back it up with numbers.Using specific figures that show the “price of procrastination” --for example, showing how compounding interest impacts how muchsomeone saves for retirement over time -- can convince employees totake advantage of these benefits now, not later.

If your company has an internal communications system, you canpublish “success stories” or case studies that show the positiveimpact these benefits have had for employees. Another option is tohold informational events such as “lunch and learns,” with freefood to incentivize employees to show up.

Provide a financial incentive for enrolling

This doesn’t have to be complicated. For example, a $25 giftcard or $100 spot bonus can go a long way in getting employees toparticipate in voluntary financial benefits.

Understand where your employees are in their financiallives

If you try all these steps and still don’t get the participationlevels you’re looking for, it might be time to reevaluate howyou’re communicating with employees -- especially ones acrossdifferent generations. Every employee has their own financialpriorities that depend on where they are in their lives. Forexample, perhaps your Baby Boomer employees aren’t signing up for529 benefits because their priority is saving for retirement.Millennial employees may not be enrolling in 401(k)s since they’reconsumed with student debt.

Again, it all comes down education -- understanding what keepsyour employees up at night when it comes to their finances, andshowing how you can help.