This is how employees make use of Equip

Key takeaways

• Sarah has been an Equip user for over a year now; here she shares her experience and why it was so easy to make use of this benefit

• Her experience highlights the user-friendly aspects of the platform, making it accessible even for those unfamiliar with financial matters

• By offering actionable plans and clear goals, her usage of Equip throughout the year is transforming how Sarah views her finances, having gained confidence and new knowledge

• Equip stands out for engaging a significant part of employees, proving to be a valuable asset for HR managers and CEOs seeking to enhance workforce well-being

Introduction

Employers strive to support their employees' well-being but often face low engagement with the offered benefits. Despite genuine efforts to provide comprehensive support, there's a gap between employer intentions and employee utilization. In this blog, Sarah (we changed her name for this blog) shares her experience with Equip to illustrate how our platform bridges this gap. How is she using Equip? And why did she decide to actually make use of the platform?

Of course, Sarah is just one of the many examples of an employee who could use some help to get more confident about finances, but let’s dive in!

Sarah has been with her company for nearly 5 years, currently in a role as Senior Account Manager. After her promotion two years ago, she started to think more about her financial future. In particular: buying a house. “I wanted to buy my first house in the city where my office is and my friends live. However, I worried this was never going to happen. I felt I was just not prepared for this at all!”

Why Sarah logged-in for the first time

Sarah decided to login for the first time after receiving one of Equip’s monthly newsletters. “My employer offers this financial well-being benefit. I really appreciate that—it feels good they also care about this. The monthly newsletter shared some relevant money tips, tricks and insights. All in very simple terms and with a refreshing look-and-feel. This newsletter included a link to Equip’s webinar about preparing to buy your dream house. This was the perfect opportunity to start on my beginners level!”

Sarah’s experience with the platform

“The platform is easy to use, within 2 minutes I had my account fully set up. It looks very nice as well, better than I expected from a finance platform! After I had set up my account, I got some suggested improvement points, learnings and topics to discuss with one of Equip’s financial planners. I booked a video meeting with one of them and it was such a nice conversation! Together we sketched out my financial goals. Based on that, we created a step-by-step plan for my home buying goal. Including setting some money aside each month, speaking to a mortgage advisor and some learning tips. Having a plan and - more importantly - very clear action points what I should do is great. It’s giving me a lot of confidence.

How Sarah continues to use Equip

Equip is not a benefit platform she checks out every week, which she actually appreciates. “I log in every few months to review my financial overview and check my progress. It helps to see all my finances in one place. In addition, I had two sessions with my financial planner this year to review together how things are going. And every now and then I join the monthly webinar. Recently, I joined one about how to deal with my leftover student debt and one about choosing the right health insurance. Both are very relevant for me.”

Sarah is surprised how much crucial information Equip offers that you do not learn at school. “When I’m on the platform I often scroll through the new blogs. It surprises me how much I actually don’t know about my finances. Topics like pension, taxes and insurance—I never spent time diving into these but it’s so important to do this right.”

Why Equip is relevant for all your employees

Sarah is one of the many employees in her company. Everybody, high or low income, is affected by money. Equip’s planners, content and tools cover topics relevant to every employee. From inflation to investing and the housing market. This is also a key reason why Equip sees such high engagement and a much higher uptake than other well-being benefits.

Read more about for whom a conversation with a financial planner might be relevant