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When employees feel financially secure, they can be more engaged, focused, productive, and loyal workers.

But simply offering a variety of financial benefits may not be enough to let all members of your workforce actually achieve financial wellness. And that’s especially true today, as employees navigate higher prices, elevated interest rates, and uneven wage growth.

So what are you doing right? And what can you improve?

Measuring financial well-being can help you answer those important questions.

Why Measure Financial Wellness and Why Now?

“A person’s financial well-being comes from their sense of financial security and freedom of choice – both in the present and when considering the future,” according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

In SoFi at Work’s Future of Workplace Financial Well-Being 2024 study, a full 86% of employees said they were stressed about their finances. In addition, nearly two out of three said they were unprepared to handle a major unexpected expense (like a car repair or replacing a broken appliance) and close to half (45%) were worried about not having enough money saved for retirement.

How are your employees faring? Now may be a good time to measure the financial well-being in your workforce. Doing so can let you see firsthand the financial struggles your employees may be going through, how those struggles connect to business outcomes, and how your total rewards strategy can help.

How to Better Understand Your Unique Workforce

Measuring financial well-being will allow you to determine what segments of your workforce are struggling the most. It can also help you figure out what you can provide to help all your employees move forward. For many employers, that’s a two-part process.

1. Wage Assessment

Many employers start this process by assessing wages. No doubt you’ve compared your wage and salary decisions against competitors’ offerings, the local labor market, and industry averages. Indeed, you may be paying above the industry standard. But it’s important to remember that even above-standard wages don’t ensure financial wellness. Your workers may still be struggling.

With that in mind, you may want to compare your company’s wages against what constitutes a local living wage in the areas where your employees work. MIT’s Living Wage Calculator may be able to assist you with this. This tool helps determine how much money a person in a specific area needs to earn to cover basic expenses and how much that person has leftover for disposable income, including saving for the future. This may be a more realistic gauge for all levels of your workforce when assessing wages and determining financial well-being.

Recommended: 3 Ways to Support Your Employees During Times of Uncertainty

2. Self-Assessment Survey

The next step is to gather input from your employees. If you haven’t already, you’ll want to design an online financial wellness assessment survey and encourage all employees to participate.

An effective self-assessment survey analyzes four pillars of financial security.

Spending: With these questions, you’ll find out how many employees are spending beyond their incomes either because they have expenses that are higher than their income or because of bad spending habits. By asking how long employees think their money would last if they suddenly lost their income, you’ll also collect data on how many of your employees are prepared for an emergency.

Saving: Retirement savings will likely dominate this section. How many employees are participating in your organization’s 401(k) or other retirement savings programs? How much of their annual income are they saving? Are they taking advantage of any match? Do they have an idea of how much they’ll need to save for retirement?

You’ll also want to find out how much your employees are saving for other goals such as emergency savings funds, college tuition, or a home down payment. This may be especially important if your benefits package includes other types of savings programs in addition to retirement.

Debt/Borrowing: Here’s where you want employees to fess up to credit card debt, mortgages, student debt (their own or for their children), and personal loans. Assessing debt is a vital element for financial wellness. Some leverage, such as a mortgage or tuition loans, can be useful financial wellness tools. But credit card and other debt can be among the biggest obstacles to financial well-being.

Planning: Questions concerning employees’ purchase of life insurance and disability income insurance can paint a picture of how well-protected they are — an important element of financial wellness. This is a good place to ask if employees have set financial goals for the future and if they’ve worked with a financial counselor to do so. You’ll get a sense of what percentage of your employees are looking forward while still taking care of short-term needs/desires. Importantly, this will also let you know how much of your workforce is engaging with the financial planning tools you may be offering.

Depending on your workforce and your goals for the assessment, you may also want to include more subjective elements in your research, such as employee diaries or interviews. This can add human stories to the data collected and help inform new benefits going forward.

Sofi at Work offers a comprehensive benefits assessment tool that can be customized to your workforce.

Measuring Financial Wellness Empowers Employees

When employees take a smart, well-written, and well-designed assessment survey, they’re not just providing information to their bosses, they’re also thinking through their own financial wellness strategy.

Incorporating an interactive tool that gives immediate feedback can help employees identify their current status and balance their short- and long-term financial goals.

Providing a one-on-one meeting with a financial planner or other expert for each employee to have after completing the survey encourages your workers to take action with their newfound knowledge and further enhance their overall financial wellness. (It can also prompt more willingness to take the assessment among employees.)

Recommended: Top 10 Reasons Financial Wellness Is Important in the Workplace

Measuring Provides a Compass for Your Financial Wellness Benefits

You’ll also want to analyze your own data on the benefits you’re currently providing to determine how well they’re contributing to employee financial wellness. A comprehensive look at who is using what benefits — including everything from health insurance and 401(k)s to paid parental leave and student loan assistance — and what employees are paying for or contributing to those benefits, can unlock details about access and participation among all levels of your workforce.

A benefit analysis combined with a wage assessment and employee financial wellness survey helps provide a deeper understanding of gaps in your total benefits strategy, areas where employee engagement and education are needed, and what new tools and programs might enhance financial well-being among your workers.

The Takeaway

Measuring your employees’ financial well-being now can lead to the design and implementation of benefits that will enhance financial wellness for all of your employees in the future.

Photo credit: iStock/SDI Productions

Products available from SoFi on the Dashboard may vary depending on your employer preferences.

Advisory tools and services are offered through SoFi Wealth LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. 234 1st Street San Francisco, CA 94105.

SoFi Student Loan Refinance Loans, Personal Loans, Private Student Loans, and Mortgage Loans are originated through SoFi Bank, N.A., NMLS #696891 (Member FDIC), (www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org ). The 529 Savings and Selection Tool is provided by SoFi Wealth LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. For additional product-specific legal and licensing information, see SoFi.com/legal. 2750 E. Cottonwood Parkway #300 Cottonwood Heights, UT 84121. ©2025 Social Finance, LLC. All rights reserved. Information as of November 2025 and is subject to change.


Financial Tips & Strategies: The tips provided on this website are of a general nature and do not take into account your specific objectives, financial situation, and needs. You should always consider their appropriateness given your own circumstances.


External Websites: The information and analysis provided through hyperlinks to third-party websites, while believed to be accurate, cannot be guaranteed by SoFi. Links are provided for informational purposes and should not be viewed as an endorsement.

SOAW-Q225-006

Benefits professionals play a critical role in leading their teams through periods of uncertainty. Whether driven by economic shifts, political/regulatory changes, or a global crisis, uncertain times can heighten employee stress, reduce morale, and impact productivity. Now more than ever, workers look to their employers for stability, empathy, and meaningful support. For HR pros, this presents a unique opportunity to strengthen employee trust, promote well-being, and reinforce organizational stability.

Supporting employees during challenging periods generally requires more than just maintaining current benefits; it often calls for thoughtful adjustments, clear communication, and a focus on mental, emotional, and financial health. What follows are three actionable ways benefits pros can meet the moment and help employees feel valued and secure even when the future feels unclear.

1. Make Sure Communications Are Honest and Accurate — and That They Reach Everyone

During uncertain times, it’s important to remain as open and transparent as possible with your team. This helps normalize what employees may be feeling and fosters a supportive environment where workers feel connected and reassured, even if the future is unpredictable.

Be Honest

Research shows employees engage more if they think company communications are honest. That means it’s OK to tell employees management is still looking into a change or isn’t sure exactly when a new policy will be implemented. In uncertain times, it’s better to keep in touch. Employees are looking to you for leadership, but they also want to be in on the process when changes are taking place. What’s more, giving employees honest updates can avoid the need for damage control later.

Be the Voice of Reason and Compassion

Your employees are likely overloaded with news and information, some of which may be contradictory and confusing. It’s important that your communications stay on top of breaking news and add a clear, helpful, and understanding voice to the discussion when events impact the company, the employees, and benefits.

Recommended: How Financial and Mental Health Can Collide With Work

Take a Multi-Channel Approach

While email is generally still the most common way to communicate with employees, you also want to use mobile and social media to help ensure that all employees see vital communications no matter where they are or what their work situation may be. This will be, literally, reaching out to your employees where they are.

Recommended: Benefits of Working From Home for Employees

2. Review Your Voluntary Benefits

In times of uncertainty, employees may look to their employer for a shoulder to lean on. Many HR professionals recognized this during the Covid-19 crisis and responded by offering a variety of flexible benefits that helped employees solve their short-term financial challenges while also assisting them in building a stronger future.

Research shows that more employers are offering voluntary benefits across a wide spectrum of needs. According to a 2024 survey by national insurance and financial services firm Alera Group, 50% of organizations now offer voluntary/supplemental benefits. The most popular add-ons include supplemental health insurance policies (e.g., critical illness, accident, and long-term care), followed by pet care, identity theft protections, and legal benefits.

Whatever combination of flexible or voluntary benefits you may be considering, you’ll want to be sure it fits your workers’ demographics and pressing needs. A variety of well-chosen benefits can help your employees face their specific challenges while also reducing stress and calming nerves during any period of uncertainty.

3. Help Employees Balance Short-Term and Long-Term Financial Well-Being

In uncertain times, a flexible financial well-being approach that includes the short-term benefits employees need to make it through is more important than ever. That’s why so many employers have introduced the types of benefits that employees feel are most relevant to their current financial concerns. Those may include emergency savings programs, homeownership benefits, and student loan repayment programs, to name just a few.

But this doesn’t mean that the importance of retirement savings and other long-term benefits should be diminished. Far from it. The security of knowing long-term retirement savings is in place can help add to employees’ overall financial well-being, especially during tumultuous times. Through effective communication and education programs, HR professionals can help employees balance short-term and long-term financial needs and goals.

It’s essential in times like these to try to help employees feel — and be — secure. These strategies may help you and your company continue to improve financial well-being during both calm and more tumultuous times.

Products available from SoFi on the Dashboard may vary depending on your employer preferences.

Advisory tools and services are offered through SoFi Wealth LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. 234 1st Street San Francisco, CA 94105.

SoFi Student Loan Refinance Loans, Personal Loans, Private Student Loans, and Mortgage Loans are originated through SoFi Bank, N.A., NMLS #696891 (Member FDIC), (www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org ). The 529 Savings and Selection Tool is provided by SoFi Wealth LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. For additional product-specific legal and licensing information, see SoFi.com/legal. 2750 E. Cottonwood Parkway #300 Cottonwood Heights, UT 84121. ©2025 Social Finance, LLC. All rights reserved. Information as of November 2025 and is subject to change.


Financial Tips & Strategies: The tips provided on this website are of a general nature and do not take into account your specific objectives, financial situation, and needs. You should always consider their appropriateness given your own circumstances.


Third-Party Brand Mentions: No brands, products, or companies mentioned are affiliated with SoFi, nor do they endorse or sponsor this article. Third-party trademarks referenced herein are property of their respective owners.

SOAW-Q225-004

It’s a win-win situation. When employers help employees become homeowners — even in small ways — workers may feel even more loyal to them. And employees who own their homes are far less likely to relocate and change jobs.

The reasons aren’t hard to figure out. Homeownership can be a major contributor to employees’ overall financial well-being, security, and stability, all of which can add to their productivity and satisfaction on the job. Employer-sponsored homeownership benefits also help build strong communities, and strong communities are almost always good for business.

The need for employer help may be greater now than ever. Stubbornly high home prices and mortgage rates, low housing inventory, and the high overall cost of living have meant that it has been harder for employees, particularly workers under age 35, to afford to buy their own homes. For many first-time homebuyers, the only option is to move to a lower-priced housing market. If those employees can’t work fully remotely, they may simply switch jobs.

The widespread lack of affordable housing in many areas can also make it difficult for employers to attract and retain the best hires. Studies suggest that the cost of replacing an individual employee costs six to nine months of the employee’s salary.

The ultimate result? A huge challenge for HR professionals.

Offering home-buying benefits can help. Numerous companies, understanding the link between homeownership and retention, have introduced homeownership benefits to help build a loyal, productive workforce that can further advance their business objectives.

Below are some of the ways employers can help their workforce become satisfied homeowners. After studying your workforce demographics and your budget, you may find inspiration among the various approaches below.

Homebuyer Education and Counseling

Knowledge is one of the most cost-effective benefits there is. Consider pairing up with area mortgage experts, financial counselors, and others to produce on-site or virtual information seminars on various homebuying topics. Banks, mortgage brokers, and real estate brokers in your area may be willing to offer free information sessions at your organization in hopes of generating clients. Or you may find one of the many homebuyer consultants available to help educate your workforce.

These programs can provide interested employees with the basics on the local market, different types of mortgages and their rates, mortgage insurance, down payment assistance, legal issues related to homeownership, foreclosure prevention, and much more. And an informed employee can avoid the financially costly mistakes that can so often be part of real estate purchases.

Recommended: How Homeownership Can Help Build Generational Wealth

Credit Counseling

A good credit score is key to qualifying for a mortgage with favorable rates. Employer-sponsored credit counseling can help employees learn how to check their credit scores and, if necessary, take steps to improve them. Consider partnering with a respected credit counseling firm to conduct in-house or virtual workshops or allowing employees time off to attend approved credit counseling seminars outside the workplace.

Recommended: Measuring the Financial Well-Being of Your Workforce

Down Payment Assistance Programs

With home prices as high as they are in many markets throughout the U.S., saving up a down payment of 10% to 20% or more can be a barrier to homeownership for many workers.

Employers can help in two ways. They can offer direct financial assistance. This usually entails paying a percentage of an employee’s down payment with a dollar amount maximum.

Employers can also help employees access government-sponsored grants and low-interest loans designed to help first-time homebuyers cover down payments and/or closing costs. Your state’s housing finance agency and your local housing authority likely have first-time homebuyer programs. Many offer qualifying buyers grants that don’t have to be paid back. Others have low or no-interest loans that often don’t have to be paid back until the house is sold or refinanced. As a rule, these programs aren’t broadly advertised, so employers who help workers find and apply for such assistance can play an important role in securing these funds.

Help With Finding and Paying Real Estate Professionals

Consider partnering with a local bank or mortgage broker to help employees find home financing. In return for the potential mortgage clients, you may be able to negotiate lower closing costs and fees for your employees that your firm also might or might not help subsidize.

A partnership between your firm and local realtors can provide workers with special help in the house-hunting process. And a relationship with local real estate lawyers or access to your own firm’s legal expertise can help lower legal fees associated with home buying for your employees.

Professional relocation services can help with home buying when an employee moves from one area of the country to another. However, with the rise of remote work, this is increasingly less common.

Important Extras

There are lots of small but important and cost-effective gestures employers can make when employees are finishing up with the home-buying experience. Extra days off (with pay) for closing and moving, for instance, can reduce stress and produce goodwill.

When the deal is done, it’s a nice gesture to acknowledge the new homeowner with a card or housewarming gift. Be sure to remind your employees that you or your expert partners can help answer any follow-up questions that come with homeownership.

You’ll also want to make sure that learning to manage mortgage payments and home ownership is part of your employees’ overall financial well-being picture. Your wellness programs may be able to help with budgeting for home improvements, maintenance, insurance, and other costs your employees may not have anticipated with home ownership.

The Takeaway

Employers can’t be the only resource employees turn to when it comes to buying a home. But a company that has a workforce full of employees of home-buying age may find that it can fill an important need and, in the process, help keep its workforce steady, loyal, productive, and satisfied.

Products available from SoFi on the Dashboard may vary depending on your employer preferences.

Advisory tools and services are offered through SoFi Wealth LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. 234 1st Street San Francisco, CA 94105.

SoFi Student Loan Refinance Loans, Personal Loans, Private Student Loans, and Mortgage Loans are originated through SoFi Bank, N.A., NMLS #696891 (Member FDIC), (www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org ). The 529 Savings and Selection Tool is provided by SoFi Wealth LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. For additional product-specific legal and licensing information, see SoFi.com/legal. 2750 E. Cottonwood Parkway #300 Cottonwood Heights, UT 84121. ©2025 Social Finance, LLC. All rights reserved. Information as of November 2025 and is subject to change.


Financial Tips & Strategies: The tips provided on this website are of a general nature and do not take into account your specific objectives, financial situation, and needs. You should always consider their appropriateness given your own circumstances.

Disclaimer: Many factors affect your credit scores and the interest rates you may receive. SoFi is not a Credit Repair Organization as defined under federal or state law, including the Credit Repair Organizations Act. SoFi does not provide “credit repair” services or advice or assistance regarding “rebuilding” or “improving” your credit record, credit history, or credit rating. For details, see the FTC’s website .

SOAW-Q225-003

From record-high inflation to interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve, the last several years have been plagued with financial unrest.

That may explain why only 28% of U.S. adults say they have enough emergency savings to cover at least six months’ worth of expenses, according to Bankrate’s 2025 Annual Emergency Savings Report.

For many Americans, this lack of reserves is a source of stress. The Bankrate survey found that a full 59% of U.S. adults are uncomfortable with the amount of emergency savings they currently have.

HR leaders have taken note. In fact, a growing number of employers now offer ways to help employees bolster their backup savings as part of their overall financial wellness benefits. If you’re interested in being one of them, read on. What follows are six moves that can help your organization build an emergency auto savings program that works best for your employees and your company.

1. Evaluate Employee Needs

The pandemic demonstrated that a huge percentage of employees in all salary ranges weren’t financially prepared for what was to become one of the most unprecedented periods of history.

This lack of preparedness added to an already stressful situation (working remotely, worries about health, child and elderly care needs, et cetera). Even with the pandemic well behind us, however, employees are still on edge. SoFi at Work’s Future of Workplace Financial Well-Being 2024 study found that 86% of U.S. workers are facing at least one source of major financial stress. What’s more, employees are spending over eight hours per week while at work dealing with issues related to their financial situation (that adds up to more than 10 weeks of work each year).

Adding an emergency savings plan can help employees alleviate a significant amount of financial stress and provide a solution to the lack of short-term savings. This might be especially appealing for younger members of your workforce who may have fewer resources to rely on than older employees.

To determine how effective an auto savings program will be for each segment of your staff, you might think about creating a preliminary survey of employees to see what they feel they need most from a short-term savings plan.

Consider the following questions:

•   Will you participate or do you feel there are already too many demands on your paycheck?

•   Are you more likely to join if the company offers a match or initial contribution?

•   Will you gravitate to emergency savings in lieu of long-term retirement savings?

•   Do more accessible after-tax savings in a 401(k) account that can be used for emergencies appeal to you?

•   Do you think automatic enrollment in an emergency saving plan could help you feel more financially secure?

2. Check Out the Competition

A good next step is to determine what competitors are offering their existing talent and new recruits in the short-term financial wellness arena. For example, is an emergency savings program common among companies competing for your talent? Do most competitors offer a match or contribution to get employees, especially new hires, started?

Use the results of this data and the survey of employees to devise the most effective program for your employees (see below) and, importantly, to help convince team members and management why an automated emergency savings program is right for your company’s comprehensive compensation and benefits package.

3. Determine the Impact of an Emergency Savings Program on Your Total Rewards Strategy

In recent years, you’ve likely had to shift or alter some of the components of your total rewards strategy, including compensation, benefits, flexibility, performance recognition, and career development. In light of those changes, where does an emergency auto savings benefit fit into the new reality? How does it fit with your HR financial wellness goals and business strategy?

The answers are likely to be positive. It’s hard to imagine a total rewards strategy that doesn’t have a place for emergency auto savings, especially in light of recent times.

That said, it’s important that you structure and implement this benefit in a way that not only fills a need but enhances your overall strategy to retain, attract, and maximize talent. Be aware that when you add an important benefit such as emergency savings, you may shift the balance in your employees’ financial well-being focus from long-term to short-term goals.

As you implement the plan, you may need to realign your employee value proposition and total rewards strategy to encompass current and immediate needs while redoubling your efforts to educate and motivate employees on long-term financial wellness goals such as saving for retirement and healthcare costs.

4. Select the Solution and Roll Out Best for Your Goals

At SoFi at Work, we’ve found that selecting the right solution is critical to the utilization and effectiveness of every benefit in your total rewards strategy. Following the McKinsey framework can work well for all types of benefit rollouts, including emergency auto savings programs. These four principles can also help ensure benefit rollouts are integrated into your business strategy.

Choose Partners Wisely

As of 2024, there are two ways to set up ESAs for employees: One is to link these accounts to an existing 401(k), where the ESA shares the same platform as the 401(k) plan. Another option is to set up an ESA with an outside bank or financial institution.

For many employers, an out-of-plan solution is appealing because these accounts are often hosted through banking platforms that can offer easier access to the funds for employees, while reducing employer responsibility and involvement. If you go this route, you’ll want to look for a credible partner that can provide expert support and advice to a wide variety of employees with varying financial needs. Consider partnering with a bank, credit union, or other financial institution that offers a low-cost, easy-to-use platform, like SoFi At Work’s Emergency Vault.

Focus on What’s Feasible

Make the program feasible to launch, which will help you make meaningful progress for employees in the short term as you lay down the foundation for long-term initiatives. This is key with emergency savings rollouts because by helping to relieve some short-term financial stress, you allow employees to focus on long-term goals sooner rather than later.

Make It Sustainable

Sustainable programs are able to flex with your business over time and during uncertain business conditions. Can your emergency auto-save program survive current or future political and economic changes? To answer this, your company may need to weigh questions such as: Do the engagement benefits of a match outweigh the cost of sustaining the program? Is the plan flexible enough to undergo changes in the economy, your workforce, and your business strategy over time?

Get Personal

Enable personalization where you can. This way, employees are likely to feel emergency auto savings can help meet their unique needs. Offering a range of amounts that employees can automatically withdraw is the first step toward personalization. Providing calculators and other educational tools that help employees determine how much they need to save and how much they can afford to save is another personalization tactic.

Recommended: How Much Should Your Employees Have in Emergency Savings?

5. Use Communication Effectively

Top-notch communication techniques can help you drive participation and, importantly, change savings behavior in your workforce.

When asking for participation and engagement, lead with empathy. If there’s one thing the pandemic should have taught us, it’s that one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to supporting employees, who have had many different experiences and have many different needs.

Coordinating communications about the importance of emergency savings with other financial well-being education programs can help get the word out in an immediate and holistic way.

Clarity is Key

Accompany your rollout with extremely clear communications telling employees exactly what they can expect, including:

•   How payroll deduction works

•   How much — or how little — employees can save in the account

•   Calculators, tools, and education efforts designed to help employees determine what they should/can save

•   Thorough explanation of any company match offered — how much, how often, and portability

•   Which bank, credit union, or other financial institution will run the account

•   How much, if any, interest will be earned

•   How withdrawals can be made

•   The fact that withdrawals can be made for any reason, no questions asked, with no penalties or tax consequences

•   A reminder that if employees leave the company, they may easily transfer their contributions to the account to their own savings account

Meet Employees Where They Are

Make sure effective and thorough communications are available across platforms so you can keep up with your far-flung workforce. Simply posting on the company website and hoping people sign up likely won’t work, especially for remote workers who may be feeling disconnected from corporate communications.

In all communications, make sure you take a multi-platform, consumer-grade, mobile-native technology approach.

6. Take Ongoing Pulse Checks

To determine engagement and any ongoing tweaks that need to be made, you’ll want to establish metrics to measure success at least quarterly. Then you’ll want to benchmark those results against your competitors and national averages to add an “outside-in” perspective.

Solicit employee input on the success of the program in three ways — employee surveys, focus groups with critical talent segments, and analysis of recent departing employees and job candidates who declined an offer.

Metrics can also help you track how well the benefit is supporting business goals. For instance, a customer-service-oriented company may find a higher focus among phone reps and fewer errors when staff is less burdened with financial worries.

The Takeaway

These six concepts are designed to help you build a successful, engaging, and effective employer-sponsored emergency savings plan. By reducing employee stress and increasing productivity and loyalty, you’ll help promote financial well-being in your workforce as well as enhance your company’s total rewards strategy and overall business objectives.

If you’re interested in setting up an emergency savings program, SoFi at Work can help. We provide an array of benefit platforms and education resources that can enhance financial wellness throughout your workforce.

Photo credit: iStock/alvarez

Products available from SoFi on the Dashboard may vary depending on your employer preferences.

Advisory tools and services are offered through SoFi Wealth LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. 234 1st Street San Francisco, CA 94105.

SoFi Student Loan Refinance Loans, Personal Loans, Private Student Loans, and Mortgage Loans are originated through SoFi Bank, N.A., NMLS #696891 (Member FDIC), (www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org ). The 529 Savings and Selection Tool is provided by SoFi Wealth LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. For additional product-specific legal and licensing information, see SoFi.com/legal. 2750 E. Cottonwood Parkway #300 Cottonwood Heights, UT 84121. ©2025 Social Finance, LLC. All rights reserved. Information as of November 2025 and is subject to change.


Financial Tips & Strategies: The tips provided on this website are of a general nature and do not take into account your specific objectives, financial situation, and needs. You should always consider their appropriateness given your own circumstances.


Third-Party Brand Mentions: No brands, products, or companies mentioned are affiliated with SoFi, nor do they endorse or sponsor this article. Third-party trademarks referenced herein are property of their respective owners.

SOAW-Q225-005

Providing an emergency savings account (ESA) is fast becoming a way to help employees build a foundation for financial well-being. According to a 2025 Bankrate survey, only 41% percent of Americans would be able to cover a major unexpected expense (such as $1,000 for an ER visit or car repair) using savings — the majority would have to resort to other options, like taking on debt or reducing expenses. Providing an emergency savings program that’s easy and accessible helps tell your workforce that you know what they’re going through and you’re there to help.

That said, HR professionals who are already managing an ESA, in the process of introducing one, or considering a rollout all face a basic yet important question: How much should their employees stash away in these accounts?

Clearly, employees themselves have the final say. But an efficient plan structure with appropriate minimums, maximums, and matches; solid guidance; and accessible educational efforts can go a long way toward spurring engagement and helping workers make the most of this important benefit. Let’s take a closer look.

Finding the ESA Sweet Spot

When offering guidance on how much to save for emergencies, employers may want to aim for the “sweet spot.” This is somewhere between putting all of your extra cash into an ESA and ignoring long-term goals, and the opposite — focusing solely on long-term savings and ignoring short-term goals, like emergency savings.

Finding the right balance can be tricky. Take ESAs and 401(k) savings, which often have a direct effect on each other and present HR professionals with a bit of a conundrum.

On the one hand, ESA savings can improve overall financial health and help employees avoid withdrawing funds from their 401(k) savings early, preventing any potential tax penalties and lost income in those accounts.

But by the same token, too much emphasis on short-term savings may dampen employees’ willingness to save in traditional retirement accounts. This is especially true in today’s economic climate, when workers are navigating a high cost of living, elevated interest rates, uneven wage growth, and concerns about an economic slowdown.

Employers can help employees balance this short-term/long-term financial tension by helping them understand their individual savings needs, goals, and risks of encountering unexpected expenses.

Rethinking Conventional Wisdom about Emergency Savings

One way to do that may be to look beyond the traditional advice concerning emergency savings. Financial institutions, such as Vanguard and Fidelity, often recommend that clients save three to six months’ worth of expenses (or more) in a cash or cash equivalent account in case of a job loss, medical issues, or other income disruptions.

But some experts believe that lower-, moderate-, and even some high-income workers may be discouraged by that goal and give up on emergency saving altogether. Setting more achievable dollar figures, such as $500 or $1,000, may be more realistic and more motivating than the traditional advice.

To get employees started, you might encourage them to set a modest saving target, such as the cost of a significant car repair, rather than jump right into the three-to-six- months’-worth-of-expenses formula. Once they reach that initial goal, they may be motivated to keep going and build up a more substantial financial safety net.

Keep in mind, the “goal” for emergency savings is fluid. The idea is for your employees to build a cushion, use it as needed, and then replace those funds and build the account some more. That’s why a hard-and-fast number doesn’t always work. Focusing on regular contributions that keep the fund functional can be more important.

Recommended: Top 10 Reasons Financial Wellness Is Important in the Workplace

Calculating Minimums, Maximums, and Matches

Benefit design can go a long way toward motivating employees to engage in emergency savings. Flexibility is key.

Minimums and Maximums. When you’re setting up a savings benefit of this kind, there are usually minimums and maximums involved. In many cases, employers work with an outside bank/vendor that may have its own restrictions. You may also want to impose some structure to run the program efficiently and engage your employees.

Keep in mind, minimums need to be low enough to engage, not overwhelm, workers. Amounts as low as $25 to $50 a week are not uncommon. Once the momentum starts and employees see balances increasing, they may want to increase the amount they’re depositing. Make sure this process is easy for them to do. And remember that being too strict about contributions can potentially backfire. If an employee must miss a month, consider not imposing any penalties. Otherwise, you may discourage an employee who happens to be temporarily strapped that month but who does want to save.

Maximums can be an important tool in ensuring that employees aren’t overly focusing on short-term savings or disregarding their 401(k) and other long-term savings goals. You’ll want to use the tools and information outlined above to set a thoughtful maximum that will help employees successfully cover unexpected expenses and, at the same time, increase their confidence for long-term goals.

When determining maximum amounts, you’ll also want to consider whether excess contributions can spill over into other types of saving programs, such as after-tax retirement contributions. This requires more administration but can be a useful tool to help employees balance short- and long-term savings goals.

Automatic deductions. HR professionals have seen how automatic payroll deductions for 401(k) plans can significantly boost savings. The same may hold true for automatic payroll deduction ESAs, in which a small portion of an employee’s paycheck (after taxes) is automatically deposited into an employer-sponsored account.

Using the information outlined above to determine the percentage deducted for each level of your workforce can help make these automatic payments accessible and sustainable.

Also keep in mind that, thanks to the passage of the SECURE Act 2.0, employers can (as of 2024) automatically enroll qualified employees into emergency savings accounts within the structure of their retirement savings plans. Employees can make after-tax contributions until the account maxes out at $2,500 (or a lower limit set by the employer). Employers can decide to automatically enroll employees into these accounts at a rate of up to 3% of eligible wages.

Employer Match. Kicking in an initial amount to help employees get their emergency fund started or offering a match tied to employee contributions can provide a strong incentive for employees to start saving.

One company might match employee contributions up to $40 a month. Other employers may provide a contribution once the employee has hit a certain savings threshold like, say, $250. For a relatively low cost, your company can provide a match that can help employees hit their emergency savings targets faster, improve their engagement, and enhance their overall financial wellness.

The Takeaway

SoFi at Work can help you and your team implement a successful emergency savings program, including guidance on how much your employees should save for unexpected expenses.

Photo credit: iStock/katleho Seisa

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Financial Tips & Strategies: The tips provided on this website are of a general nature and do not take into account your specific objectives, financial situation, and needs. You should always consider their appropriateness given your own circumstances.

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