The employee benefit Walmartrsquos workers loveBy offering a financial wellness tool to its associates Walmart is cutting stress while strengthening loyalty

For five years Walmart had been looking for a new kind of benefit for its 15 million associ-ates at over 5000 stores The companyrsquos offerings were already robust on the financial front including solutions to help associates with long-term investing and retirement

But it had become clear to management that something was missing a solution to help Walmart associates reduce financial stress by breaking out of the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle

PARTNER CASE STUDY

wwwevencom

WALMART ASSOCIATES EMPLOYED

15 million

PROPORTION OF WALMART ASSOCIATES USING THE EVEN APP

33

NUMBER OF STORES WITH 50 OR HIGHER ADOPTION OF EVEN APP

948

1

Go to evencomemployers or email partnersevencom to learn more 2

ldquoThe problem is not just a Walmart problemndashitrsquos a problem thatrsquos pervasive across the nation Itrsquos this issue of people living paycheck to paycheck We were trying to identify How can we fix that problem for our associates How can we help themrdquo

A nationwide problem

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Scott Pullen Senior Benefits Manager at Walmart

Living paycheck to paycheck is a situation millions of Americans find themselves in every daymdashand itrsquos a problem seen across more income brackets than one might think According to a Nielsen Global Consumer Insights study one in four families making $150000 per year or more is living paycheck to paycheck For house-holds earning between $50000 to $100000 this number increases to one in three (Figure 1)1 And the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) notes that 47 of Americans are spending an amount thatrsquos more than or equal to their income2

For millions of Americans this paycheck-to-paycheck reality boils down to one thing stress According to the American Psychological Association (APA) 64 of Americans cite money as a ldquosomewhat or very significant source of stressrdquo This trend intensifies when looking at specific demographics 75 of Millennials 76 of GenXers and 77 of parents with children below age 18 all cite finances as a leading cause of their stress The APA also notes that all this stress has tangible impacts on the wellbeing of workers Nearly one in five Americans

say that due to financial concerns theyrsquove either skipped or considered skipping a visit to the doctor3

All this translates into problems for businesses A study by PwC showed that financially stressed employees are nearly five times more likely to be distracted by money problems while at work and are twice as likely to spend at least three hours of working time dealing with those problems Theyrsquore also twice as likely to miss work on account of personal financial issues or cite health issues caused by financial stress4

$150k+

$50K-$150K

gt$50K

1 in 4 families

1 in 3 families

1 in 2 families

SALARY LIVING PAYCHECK-TO-PAYCHECK

Figure 1

ldquoThis is exactly the solution wersquove been looking for The rest of the marketplace really hasnrsquot caught uprdquo

Offering holistic financial wellnesswith Even

Go to evencomemployers or email partnersevencom to learn more

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3

Daniel Eckert Senior Vice President Services and Digital Acceleration at Walmart

PARTNER CASE STUDY

Walmart wanted to help its employees find a way to address this epidemic of financial stress brought about by the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle So it embarked on a search for a solution which began with conducting research Walmart concluded that associates didnrsquot just need help with short-term cash flow they also needed tools for healthier planning spending and saving in order to stop living paycheck to paycheck

Walmart chose Even because it offered not only Instapay which lets employees access their earned wages early but also tools to help associates budget and forecast their income an ldquookay to spendrdquo balance that updates in real time and features to help associates set and achieve savings goals

Scott Pullen Senior Benefits Manager at Walmart explains that Even was the perfect solution for Walmart because ldquoWhat you want to get people to do is break that cycle of living paycheck to paycheck So getting paid early might solve a short-term problem but it never really gets to that long-term solution Thatrsquos where the rest of the Even platformmdashthe personal financial management toolsmdashreally helps break that cycle of living paycheck to paycheckrdquo

Associate adoption of the platform far surpassed Walmartrsquos expectations Pullen was expecting anywhere between 5 and 10 adoption noting ldquothat would have been good for a lot of the benefits that we hadrdquo Less than one year after launch though over a third of Walmart associates were using the platform Eckert added ldquoThe growing performance that wersquore seeing month on month is stunning Itrsquos beyond our expectationsrdquo

The rollout of Even was announced with a small market-ing push through Walmartrsquos internal channelsmdashwhat followed was a pattern of rapid organic adoption over the course of several weeks Eckert says ldquoI think a lot of it is driven by word of mouth because the associates using it are in love with itrdquo Among Walmart associates Even use is thriving Over 516000 associates have tried the platform and 948 stores have adoption rates of 50 or higher

ldquoIf Irsquom not stressing about having to pay for an extra bill or a kidrsquos birthday party that weekend then I can just focus on workrdquo

Results for employees equals results for Walmart

Lettie Donnell Walmart Associate

PARTNER CASE STUDY

Go to evencomemployers or email partnersevencom to learn more

49

49

16700 total

16600 total

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APP RATINGS AS OF NOVEMBER 2018

4

I love that my money is always there when i need it the most Im new to the Texas area and work at walmart so having this app has been a blessing with helping me and my kids getting our life started in a new place

Jhelani Charles

Great app Heard about from work and its great if you need money from your next paycheck without any fees My work place gave me a free month and I shall continue to use it Month by month

Leo Guevara

ldquoIt was super easy to work with Even Their developers and the leadership were very syncedrdquo

Partnering to grow financial health for thousands of employees

Derric DrsquoSouza Senior Manager Services Technologyat Walmart

PARTNER CASE STUDY

Go to evencomemployers or email partnersevencom to learn more

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5

From the beginning Walmart was impressed by Evenrsquos team Eckert notes ldquoOne of the best things about Even was their willingness and ability to get in stores with our associates to truly understand their needs and continue to design their product against those needs Itrsquos pretty remarkablerdquo

Walmart appreciated that Even had taken the time to navigate the regulatory landscape across state payroll laws and build an application with a seamless capacity to work with payroll systems And as Even builds out additional functionality for its financial wellness platform the entire team is keeping Walmart associates in mind Scott Pullen Senior Benefits Manager says of Even ldquoTheyrsquore constantly asking What is the data telling us what are the associates using the product for how are they changing how could we improve the product to get betterrdquo

From a technical perspective the relationship is thriving as well Even worked extensively with Walmartrsquos technol-ogy teams to implement and launch the application Derric DrsquoSouza Senior Manager Services Technology says ldquoTypically when you work with vendors there is a little bit of time when vendors need time to understand whatrsquos happening In this case with Even it was super easy to work with them The developers and the overall leadership at Even were very synced There was not a whole lot of managing that I had to dordquo Sid Shake Director Services Engineering and Digital Acceleration added ldquoAll the engineers we worked with at Even knew the tech stack really well What usually would have taken two or two and a half weeks took about a dayrdquo

The Even financial wellness platform delivers unprecedented ROI for businesses because it meaning-fully reduces stress for employees By providing not just the short-term cash flow they need to get by but also helping with healthy planning spending and saving that helps them make progress Even gets high adoption from employees and provides huge savings for employers To learn more just get in touch partnersevencom

1 Knutson Ted Financial Advisor Magazine Nielsen Even Many High Earners Live Paycheck To Paycheck August 5 2015

2 Thea Garon et al Center for Financial Services Innovation US Financial Health Pulse 2018 Baseline Survey Results

3 American Psychological Association American Psychological Association Survey Shows Money Stress Weighing on Americansrsquo Health Nationwide February 4 2015

4 PricewaterhouseCoopers ldquoEmployee Financial Wellness Survey 2017 Resultsrdquo

Get breakthrough results by offering comprehensive financial wellness

PARTNER CASE STUDY

Go to evencomemployers or email partnersevencom to learn more

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6