Take part in EBN’s Financial Fitness Challenge

Employer applications are now being accepted for Employee Benefit News’ second Financial Fitness Challenge, an engaging and effective online financial education program.

Designed by EBN’s partner, The Educated Investor, a leading financial education content creator, the Financial Fitness Challenge is an event-driven program that provides unbiased, online, interactive instruction in personal finance and investing fundamentals. It is designed for all employees, regardless of age, education or income.

The goal of the Financial Fitness Challenge is to get a designated number of employees to complete five online financial education courses and to track the improvement in their financial fitness. The Educated Investor provides all necessary training and support.

Last year, 15 small and large employers from the private and public sectors were chosen to compete in the initial Challenge. HR/benefits executives in each organization designed communications and incentive programs to motivate their "players," who included managers, executives, field sales and service reps, shift workers, administrative support staff, retail sales and service people, health care providers and marketing and product design professionals.

The 2012 Financial Fitness Challenge showed that the five-week course significantly increased employees’ financial fitness. In last year’s Challenge, some 2,500 employees completed more than 10,000 hours of coursework. On average, participants spent just over four hours learning and improved their financial knowledge by 30%, with a 67% pre-test and an 88% post-test score. The average "graduation" rate from the course series across the 15 employers was 70%.

Program features

The Financial Fitness Challenge is easy to implement. Key program features include:

  • Five one-hour courses provided over five weeks on such topics as Saving and Investing, Investment Basics, Investment Strategies, Mutual Funds and Retirement Planning.
  • Flexible course delivery, available anytime from any browser
  • Professionally managed by the experienced FFC team
  • Built-in performance tracking that yields verifiable results
  • Meets ERISA 404(c) requirement to provide unbiased investment education through an independent third party
  • Includes pre- and post-tests and surveys to measure changes in knowledge and behaviors

Cost

The Financial Fitness Challenge program normally has a $50 per-participant cost, but thanks to the program sponsors, up to 100 companies can apply for scholarships for 100 to 500 employees to participate free of cost—that’s up to $25,000 in free training per company. In addition, all participating companies will enjoy a steeply discounted, one-time program setup and training fee of $995—a 60% discount from the standard fee of $2,500.

The application deadline for the next Financial Fitness Challenge is February 28. To learn more and to apply for the 2013 program, click here.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Financial planning
MORE FROM EMPLOYEE BENEFIT NEWS