The Financial Health Benefit Credit Union Employees Need Most Is Time
By Latoya Hunter
Credit unions have spent the better part of a decade building financial health into what they offer members: small-dollar loans that compete with payday lenders, savings nudges, early paycheck access, and financial coaching. Many now measure member financial health directly and report on it to their boards.
Behind that commitment are the people who bring it to life every day: the tellers cashing member checks, the call center staff helping someone navigate an overdraft, and the loan officers walking members through important financial decisions. These employees spend their days helping others strengthen their financial decisions. That doesn’t always mean they have the time to focus on their own.
That reality inspired the Financial Health Network, a national nonprofit focused on financial health for all, 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–70% ofnonprofit 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.
What happened is worth sharing with any institution that asks members to trust it with financial guidance.
Behind the Scenes of Our First FinHealth Day
Before FinHealth Day, we invited employees to take our annualFinHealth Score® Survey powered by Attune, which helped them identify their financial strengths and opportunities for improvement across four pillars:
- Spend
- Save
- Borrow
- Plan and Protect.
The results gave employees a comprehensive snapshot of their overall financial health and helped inform how we designed FinHealth Day. For employees who wanted additional direction, we offered an optional Financial Health Check-Up worksheet to help them determine how to use their time.
Then we got out of the way. Leaders were explicit that this was not a day to clear an inbox or finish a project. It was protected time to use however best supported each person’s financial health.
Specific, not Symbolic
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. One team member took their teenager to open their first checking account. Another spent the day filing FSA and dependent care reimbursement claims. Someone successfully challenged an insurance bill. Another rolled over an old 401(k) and reviewed their insurance coverage. One helped an aging family member piece together plans for the future.
I used the day to consolidate credit card debt, reallocate retirement investments, and cancel subscriptions I’d stopped using. None of it was hard. But all of it had been easy to postpone, because uninterrupted time during the workweek is hard to come by.
That was our most important lesson: Financial health is shaped not only by major decisions but also by the accumulated effect of everyday actions. A protected day moved those actions from intention to completion. It also made visible to our leadership the other roles employees carry, as parents, partners, and caregivers, and how one person’s financial health is often bound up with the people who depend on them.
Access is Not the Same as Use
Our Essential Benefits research shows that offering a benefit does not guarantee people use it. For credit unions, this is much like a member who qualifies for a savings program but never enrolls, or who means to dispute a charge but never calls, has a counterpart on your payroll. Employees face the same friction: confusing forms, hard-to-find features, unclear next steps, and a workday that leaves little room to deal with any of it.
Not all friction is bad. A pause before a major financial decision can be valuable. But friction that only consumes time without improving the decision can make it harder for employees to realize the full value of their benefits and services. For credit unions, reducing that friction can begin with something straightforward: giving employees dedicated, uninterrupted time to understand their options, access available resources, and take meaningful steps toward their financial goals.
Three Considerations for Your Own Institution
A paid day is a real investment, and it is not a substitute for fair pay or meaningful benefits. But it is a low-cost way to remove one practical barrier and give credit union employees time to act. If you’re considering something similar, three things made the difference for us.
- Make the purpose unmistakable. This is protected time, not another assignment. If employees suspect they’ll be judged on what they got done, the day becomes a chore. For branch and contact center teams, that also means arranging coverage in advance so no one feels guilty stepping away.
- Offer resources without overstructuring. A survey, a worksheet, and a clear list of your own benefits with enrollment links are all useful. A mandatory agenda is not. Employees know which financial tasks need their attention.
- Have leaders model it. Executives should take the time themselves, keep it free of meetings and email, and, where appropriate, share how they used it. Nothing signals permission faster than a CEO who spent the afternoon disputing a bill, too.
Not every credit union can close for a day, and branch operations make that harder still. The principle scales. A half-day, quarterly financial health hours, staggered time by team, or protected time tied to benefits enrollment can deliver much of the same value. The key is intentionality.
Walking the Talk
Credit unions ask members to trust them with some of the most consequential decisions in their lives. Turning that same lens on the workforce is a credible next step, and one that costs little to pilot. The employee who finally rolled over an old 401(k) or sorted out a parent’s paperwork is the same person explaining those products to members the next morning, now with firsthand experience.
FinHealth Day reminded us that one of the most practical benefits an employer can offer is time: time to make the call, complete the form, ask the question, or help someone they love. Sometimes, creating that space is what turns a good benefit into real action.
Latoya Hunter is Vice President of Talent at the Financial Health Network.
