A U.S.-based healthcare company had been offering financial education and counseling services for many years, but employee survey data revealed that less than 5% of its employees were utilizing the benefit. The company engaged the services of a well-known global consulting firm to spearhead the search for a new vendor that could reshape the program and provide a broad set of financial training and literacy services including debt management and consolidation, personal budgeting, wealth management, homebuying preparation, college expense planning, estate planning, retirement planning and readiness.
Despite the consulting firm’s considerable resources and reputation, it struggled to identify financial education vendors that could take on the client’s demanding service set. After several months, the client asked SBA to take over the search.
Prior to this request, SBA had successfully completed numerous vendor search and implementation projects for the healthcare company, helping it select benefits administrators for its 401(k) and health & welfare plans as well as providers of more “unusual” benefits like relocation services and incentive programs. In early 2020, as businesses worldwide began instituting remote work poilicies and travel restrictions in response to the coronavirus pandemic, SBA began researching financial education vendors that might be able to meet the healthcare company's requested service set.
An initial list of 17 vendors was winnowed down to five semi-finalists. Rather than put the project on hold during the pandemic, SBA coordinated the five vendors’ responses, summarized and reviewed the proposals and assisted the company in determining which vendors not only demonstrated a willingness to meet the client’s service set but also possessed the resources necessary to provide those services at scale.
Three finalists were invited to deliver virtual finalist presentations. SBA worked closely with the client to evaluate the finalists. When the vendor with the most compelling presentation was deemed too expensive, SBA developed a creative solution for reducing fees without compromising the client’s wish list. By evaluating the client’s service contracts with its existing 401(k) and health & welfare plan administrators, SBA found that some of the desired financial education services could be provided by those vendors at no additional cost. Subsequently, SBA was able to pare down the RFP to a focused set of services that fell within the company’s budget.
Following implementation of the selected vendor, the healthcare company transformed its financial education program from a little-known benefit rarely utilized by employees to one that proactively supports employees as they pursue their personal and professional goals. SBA’s selection of a best-fit vendor enabled the client to economically engage its entire employee population with frequent communication and personalized recommendations. For instance, every employee receives a unique “retirement readiness” score that projects whether they’re on track to meet their retirement goals. Customized action plans help employees understand where there are opportunities to maximize contributions or adjust their investment allocations, and employees can even improve the accuracy of their financial wellness analysis by adding assets outside the company’s retirement plans.
