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Éric Mac Nicoll

511 words ( 3min. )
Eric Mac Nicoll, CEO of Kaira technologies
KAIRA | Easing Financial Stress For Employees

This is an excerpt from this Industry Tech Insight article.

In today’s day and age, there are numerous reports of increasing anxiety levels, low motivation, and exhaustion. But have we ever thought that the people struggling with those problems are the same people showing up to work at various organizations? This is not about a few employees just having a bad day. These are heavy troubles that take a toll on how the employees operate at work—most of these troubles are rooted in financial stress.

A recent study by Ceridian and the Financial Wellness Lab of Canada shows that 82% of employees worry about their money problems while at work in North America. Of these, 23% worry about it at work for more than an hour a week. It shows that personal finances are the number one cause of employee stress. It is more critical than workload, health, and relationship problems combined. This leads to an estimated loss of productivity of 664-billion-dollar U.S. per year for North American companies.

The market is growing, and with an economic context that will remain difficult, employers and their employees will be actively looking for solutions to solve the issue. Last year, 97% of employers said they were responsible for their employees’ financial wellness. And 74% of employees said employers must offer financial wellness benefits.

Taking Care of Finance

Employees often show their financial stress by missing days at work. According to the study, 36% of employees have missed work due to a financial problem. They are also more easily distracted and unable to focus on their job, affecting workplace productivity.

Kaira’s app provides recommendations based on the person’s needs while considering their financial and socioeconomic situation and relationship to money. To better understand how Kaira works, let’s look at the employees’ journey through the app:

To begin with, Kaira helps them understand their relationship to money, financial health, and stress levels. “We’ve developed a simple self-assessment that allows each person to discover what money means to them. A second self-assessment enables them to discover how they perceive their financial health,” explains Eric. “Then, Kaira allows them to connect their bank and financial data from all their institutions, giving them a consolidated view of their personal finances. The app uses bank-level security, and anonymized data to guarantee confidentiality and security.”

The solution also allows the digital A.I. coach to compare how they perceive their finances and behavior. Kaira proposes a financial coaching plan that considers their needs and situation. It helps them maintain good financial habits by assisting employees to track and categorize their income, spending, assets, and debts.

Employers, on their end, have access to Kaira Insight, an easy-to-use anonymized and aggregated business intelligence tool, helping them gain insights into the general financial health of their employees. This enables them to understand where their teams’ global challenges or distresses lie and helps them identify appropriate actions to improve their employees’ overall well-being. It helps them determine where the next dollar could be invested in terms of financial benefits and the possible impact of this.

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