Financial health is deeply personal, but it isn’t separate from our working lives. The medical bill waiting to be resolved, the retirement account we’ve been meaning to revisit, or the financial paperwork a family member needs help organizing doesn’t disappear when the workday begins. More often than not, it gets pushed to the evening, the weekend, or simply to “I’ll deal with that later.” 

That reality inspired the Financial Health Network to observe National Financial Awareness Day by creating our first FinHealth Day: a dedicated workday for employees to focus on their own financial health. The idea is rooted in what our research tells us about the nonprofit workforce. Seventy percent of nonprofit workers aren’t Financially Healthy, with many struggling to build savings, manage debt, and plan for the future. As a nonprofit committed to improving financial health for all, we saw this as an opportunity to turn that insight inward and put our mission into practice. 

When employers think about supporting worker financial health, the conversation often focuses on compensation, benefits like retirement plans or insurance, and financial education. While those elements are important, our Essential Benefits research shows that access alone doesn’t guarantee participation. People are balancing financial decisions alongside work, caregiving, and other demands—a challenge we saw across our own workforce during FinHealth Day—and complicated products or processes can make that burden even greater. 

For employers and providers alike, the question then becomes: How are we moving beyond access to actually help workers achieve better financial outcomes? 

Here’s what FinHealth Day showed us about our workers’ financial priorities and where support can make a real difference. 

Before FinHealth Day, we invited employees to take our annual FinHealth Score® Survey powered by Attune, which helped them identify their financial strengths and opportunities for improvement across four pillars: Spend, Save, Borrow, and Plan and Protect. The results gave employees a comprehensive snapshot of their overall financial health and helped inform how we designed FinHealth Day. 

Our team members shared that what they valued most was the opportunity not only to learn about their financial health and available benefits, but also to have dedicated, uninterrupted time to choose—and act on—the priorities that mattered to them. For employees who wanted additional direction, we offered an optional Financial Health Check-Up worksheet to help them determine how to use their time. 

FinHealth Day gave employees permission to pause their usual work and take action on those priorities. Leaders reinforced that this was not a day to catch up on email or squeeze in unfinished assignments, but to use in the way that best supported their financial health. 

What stood out was the range of ways employees used the day. Some addressed immediate needs. Others planned for the future or supported the financial health of someone they love. A few examples of how employees used the time: 

• • “I took my teen to open a high school checking account.” 
  • “I spent the day submitting claims so I can get my FSA and Dependent Care account reimbursements.” 
  • “I helped an aging family member piece together her plans for the future.” 
  • “I successfully challenged an insurance bill.” 
  • “I rolled over an old 401k, and reviewed my insurance coverages.” 

I also took advantage of the day by reviewing and consolidating some credit card debt, reallocating retirement investments, and finally canceling several subscriptions I was no longer using. None of those tasks were impossible, yet each had been easy to postpone because uninterrupted time during the workweek can be hard to come by. 

That may have been our most important lesson: Financial health is shaped not only by major financial decisions, but also by the accumulated effect of everyday actions. 

A protected day created the space to move those actions from intention to completion. It also revealed the many roles employees hold outside of work, including as parents, partners, and caregivers, and how interconnected financial health can be across a family.

A FinHealth Day does require an investment of paid time, and organizations should consider their own capacity and operational needs. A dedicated day is also certainly not a substitute for equitable pay or meaningful benefits. But it is one small gesture where employers can remove a practical barrier and give employees time to act. 

Dealing with financial concerns can create stress, consume attention, and affect productivity. Giving your employees space to address these worries can build trust, strengthen utilization of existing benefits, and help create a culture where people want to show up and do their best work. 

The experience also gave us useful insight into our benefit offerings. Looking at aggregate employee results through the Spend, Save, Borrow, and Plan and Protect pillars will help us understand which benefits are most relevant for our workers, as well as where clearer communication or easier access may promote uptake. 

These same lessons apply to financial services providers. Even if a product is designed to support financial health, cumbersome onboarding, hard-to-find features, or unclear next steps can stand between a customer and the intended benefit. 

Not all friction is necessarily bad. At the right moment, friction can encourage people to slow down and consider an important financial decision. But friction that consumes time or makes a product harder to navigate without improving the decision can become another barrier to action. From insurance coverage to checking accounts, our workers’ experiences highlighted where customer-centered design can help boost engagement and, in turn, support financial health.    

For employers exploring a similar day, I would offer three considerations: 

• • Make the purpose clear. This is protected time, not an additional assignment. 
  • Offer ideas and resources without over-structuring the experience. Employees know which financial priorities require their attention. 
  • Ensure leaders model the behavior by protecting the day. Leaders should share how they used it when appropriate, and avoid communications that pull people back into work. 

Not every employer will be able to dedicate a full day, but the principle is adaptable. Even a half-day, quarterly financial health hours, or protected time tied to benefits enrollment can help. The key is intentionality. 

FinHealth Day reminded us that one of the most practical financial health benefits an employer can offer is time: time to make the call, complete the form, ask the question, support a loved one, or take one meaningful step toward a secure future. Sometimes, creating that space is what turns a good benefit into real action.