In Australia, corporates and financial services providers are lucky enough to have a choice of financial education solutions for staff, clients, customers and members. There are seminars at the office, subsidised financial advice programs, cocktail-party style live education events, online financial education, and blended learning methods. Unfortunately (for the learners, at least), not all financial education programs are created equal. Some delivery methods may be less effective in terms of uptake, engagement, and long term impact.
Here are three reasons why you should choose online financial education. Or if you’ve already got an education program, why you should take it online. “Hang on a second,” you say. “How can it be more personalised if the learner is sitting in front of a screen, not another person?” In this instance, ‘personalised’ means ‘tailored to the needs, interests and subtle preferences of the learner’. If you’re delivering live/event-based financial education to two or more people at a time, you’re already making compromises on how personalised the learning experience is. Even within groups where learners have similar ages, income levels and goals, there will be many differences. Some will prefer to learn in the morning when they’re feeling fresher; others are night owls who retain more when they read just before bedtime. Some will want information presented in a linear fashion; others will want to explore definitions, side-topics and points of personal interest. Some will prefer to skip straight to one point; others will want a well-rounded suite of information.
With online financial education, you can affordably and scalably offer a range of content in a way that lets learners create their own personalised learning experience. They can learn at their own pace, in private, day or night, stopping and starting or repeating as needed. Once you start watching the data in your learning record store (LRS) on how users interact with an online financial education system, you’ll see the variety of learning needs and interests for yourself.” One of the biggest costs associated with delivering an in-person financial education program is labour. Someone’s got to be there to deliver the presentation or facilitate the talk. And chances, are, there’s a lot more labour behind the scenes, too. Labour hours to design and create printed collateral, hours to take RSVPS and mark off attendance, hours to make the PowerPoint; the list goes on. We already know that with large group presentations, personalisation is compromised. Now, if you can afford to pay for every person in your group to regularly see an independent professional planner or adviser for private appointments, that’s great. But 99.99% of organisations need something a little more cost effective.
Online financial education gets you more bang for your buck because it’s available at a very low per-unit, per-user cost. At the same time, it has a powerful impact that means learners are saving themselves money, and you’re getting a great ROI too. In fact, some studies suggest that online financial education initiatives may deliver a return of up to 300%. You may also save time and money on administration, as functions like enrolment, assessment and certification can be largely automated. If you’ve already got some kind of financial education offering, do you find that your education staffer/team is stretched a little thin? Would you like to offer more frequent events, in more diverse locations around your city, state, or around the country? It’s nice to run events where you can meet people in person, put a name to a face, and treat them to a bit of old fashioned hospitality. But there are a lot more ways to make people feel welcome and looked after.
Online financial education can help you expand your reach. Effectively, it’s an ‘always on’, 24/7 event. More people can access it at any one time, and nobody’s going to drop out because they can’t be bothered driving/have missed the train/are too tired to make the start time. In other words, it’s a lot more appealing to everyone from parents with young kids to rural and regional residents and those with mobility challenges. Sure, it might not be as glamorous as a cocktail soiree or a catered breakfast in an upscale hotel, but it’s a heck of a lot more practical and effective. Run more frequent, inclusive training. For more information or to start a discussion on how online financial education could work for your organisation, get in touch with Money101 today. For more details on ROI and cost effectiveness, please request a copy of our brochure, ‘Find out why you should provide financial education in your workplace: Business case and ROI analysis’.
