There’s a good reason employers are implementing employee discount programs in record numbers. Actually, there are lots of good reasons:
- First off, financial worries have reached epidemic proportions among American workers. An astonishing 78% are living paycheck-to-paycheck to make ends meet.
- Second, 72% admit to worrying about their finances while on the job, which erodes their productivity.
- Third, all this financial stress raises absenteeism and tardiness by 34%.
- Fourth, financial stress contributes to a variety of costly health conditions including high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and diabetes.
- And fifth, employees’ money worries drain the bottom line … to the tune of roughly $500 billion a year.
It’s no wonder companies are scrambling to adopt employee discount programs that help employees save money and stretch their hard-earned dollars.
Why Employers Love Discounts as Much as Employees
High-quality employee discount programs give access to local and national money-saving deals (often negotiated specifically for the program’s users) on a wide range of products and services including groceries and restaurants, furniture and appliances, cell phones, televisions and electronics, school supplies and tuition, child care and senior care—even big-ticket items like cars and homes.
Obviously, employees love discount programs because they can save money literally every day, whether they’re buying necessities, luxury items or dealing with unplanned expenses such as auto and home repairs. In addition, as noted in the John Hancock survey mentioned above, employees actually look to their employers for financial help and guidance, so an employer-sponsored discount program is a real advantage in terms of attracting and retaining talent.
Employers, on the other hand, love employee discount programs because they’re inexpensive to implement, they help to differentiate the company’s voluntary benefit offerings and they can be a powerful draw for younger talent who often are watching their pennies carefully.
If you’re wondering about the results a top-shelf discount program can deliver, LifeCare’s LifeMart discount program, for example, saved our clients’ employees $24.7 million on new car purchases, $7.9 million on child care-related purchases and close to $1.5 million on hotel bookings in 2018 alone. In general, LifeMart saved individuals an average of roughly $53 per purchase.
Bottom line, a great employee discount program can save your employees hundreds, even thousands, of dollars ever year. It’s a benefit they can use every day. Plus it costs you nothing to implement, it requires zero effort on your part to manage and it helps you attract and retain talent.
Seriously, what’s not to love?
If you’d like to discuss the value and business benefits of discount shopping programs—or details about the LifeMart program, in particular—contact us here or call us at (866) 675-3751.