(upbeat music) - Recently, along with my colleague Mary Gamba, on our sister series Lessons and Leadership, we spoke to Jacquelyne Reardon who's the head of US Marketing at Franklin Templeton.

They did a survey at Franklin Templeton.

It's called The Voice of the American Workplace.

It's a survey about what workers want and need, what their stresses are, what employers stresses, wants, and needs are complex, important stuff as the workplace in America changes by the minute.

at Franklin Templeton, a great organization.

Jacquelyne, great to have you with us, A and B.

A, and B, that promotion, that title, just happened As we’re taping yesterday, correct?

- It did, yeah.

They heard I was going to be on your show, So they said "there’s a promotion".

-That’s awesome.

Hey share for us not only your role, but Franklin Templeton, who has been a big part of our universe for a long time.

- Great, yeah.

Franklin Templeton is a global asset manager, and I have the privilege of leading our US marketing organization.

So we partner very closely with all of the distribution channels that work closely with financial advisors and investors to hopefully secure a better financial future for more Americans.

- And along those lines, to the 529 folks out there, our kids are going to school, college largely because of the 529 plan we established from the beginning when they were born through the folks at Franklin Templeton.

Talk to us, Jacquelyne.

This survey, it's called The Voice of the American Worker.

American Workplace, I'm sorry, Voice of the American Workplace Survey.

Who did you survey and what did you survey them about?

- Yes, so this is the fourth year we've actually conducted this research and we rebranded this year to Voice of the American Workplace.

So it used to be Voice of the American Worker.

- So it's workplace.

- Yeah, it's workplace now because for the last three years we've surveyed employees, and this year we've actually been able to add the employer voice as well.

So we partnered with the Harris Poll to conduct this research and it's really meant to check in with employees about key dimensions of their health, namely financial health, and importantly, identify some of the key resources and benefits that they need from their employer to create a better-- - Are you adjusting your camera, multitasking?

As you're on the air with us, that is so impressive.

(laughter) - I had a light about to fall so.

- That also shows why you're the head of US marketing.

But go ahead, so you talked to workers-- - And employers, exactly.

- What were some of the most significant findings.

- So as you can imagine, this year, it's so exciting that we have both perspectives because every single year we see that employees are stressed out, they're looking for more from their employers, et cetera, et cetera.

But this year we were finally able to compare the two.

So what are employers doing to help support employees and does that match up with what employees need?

And unsurprisingly, there's a disconnect, which is okay, there's some synergies, but there's a lot of misalignment.

And we're hoping that our research can really help highlight some of the key opportunities that employers can spend their next best dollar in the place that's gonna be the most effective for employees to seek financial independence, which that's one of the key findings we find, is that people are seeking financial independence more than they're seeking things like traditional retirement.

Saving for retirement is super important, but so is the full spectrum of financial needs like budgeting, saving for children's future education, creating an income stream later in life, healthcare costs.

So really approaching employees holistically and a more personalized manner to sort of meet their unique financial needs is the huge call to actions for employees today.

- Very important information, Mary, please.

- Yeah, and Jacqui, I had the luxury of looking at the report and we'll put up the website, right?

People can go and read the report, get the summary.

One thing that I was very surprised to hear about is pet insurance.

I'm a huge dog lover.

And I remember we were talking and I said, "wow, what other things were surprising"?

I mean, I wouldn't even think that an employer, and Steve, you and I are gonna talk offline.

Maybe we'll start providing pet insurance to the team members that we bring on board.

But what were some of the other surprises, Jacqui, that you have found from the survey in terms of what employees really want that maybe they didn't want 5, 10, 20 years ago?

- Yeah, I think the pet insurance thing stuck out to me as well.

I think what's not surprising, I'll start with that, is that everyone's stressed out.

The surprising thing are some of the things that employees are seeking.

So employees are absolutely stressed out.

96% said they have some area of concern, but all of their top concerns are financial.

So things like income, maintaining their standard of living, retirement savings, healthcare costs.

So it's not surprising that they're really looking to employers for a more diverse set of benefits.

To your point though, the surprising thing is things like pet insurance, 78% of people are looking for that, 84% are actually looking for student loan repayment assistance, which-- - Wait, how many percent for student loan?

- 84%, so.

- Wow.

- I know that's definitely something that we see in the news a lot.

And we get pings quite a bit for newsletters and webinars, et cetera.

So people are really focused on this whole concept of debt.

And unfortunately it's pretty robust when it comes to student loans as well.

We've done a couple deep dives in debt in our research in the past, and it's definitely a huge roadblock that's keeping many folks, specifically millennials from meeting other key financial milestones like retirement or buying a house, et cetera.

But the most surprising finding is that the number one benefit that people are looking for are personalized benefits.

So 85% of employees are looking for more personalized benefits.

So that's an interesting one because logistically how do we think about rolling something like that out?

How does an employer sort of deal with that and leverage.

But it's something really interesting, I think for us to collectively solve for in the future, so that people are only leveraging the benefits that make the most sense to them, and likely that's gonna, you know, increase the loyalty and retention that they have within their workforce.

- Yeah, lemme follow up on that.

So it's interesting, we talk about what workers, people who are on a team, what they're struggling with, what their wants are, what their needs are, you know, again, they're stressors if you will.

But those of us who are employers, and I'm proud to be someone who works with a team and have, you know, it's frankly the pressure, the responsibility of employing a significant number of people.

It's also a, it's a blessing, it's an honor, but sometimes it's not fun.

And sometimes there is stress and there is pressure.

So here's my question.

What did you find from quote unquote employers that they were struggling with?

Because some of us also struggle with retention of talented employees.

We struggle with, well, you want college tuition to be reimbursed or, but we don't know if you're gonna stay with us.

- Right.

- So then how much can we invest in you?

Well, not to mention balancing the books and making payroll every two weeks and providing all those benefits.

Long story short, what about us?

- Yeah, and it's a really stark picture as well for employers.

They've been dealing a lot with a lot the last couple years.

Like think about the great resignation and then we called it the Great Boomerang.

And it hasn't really gotten much easier since, to your point, they're dealing with turnover.

That's still a big concern.

But the biggest thing that they're dealing with is this increased expectation from their employees.

And we have a great quote in our research that says 82% of employers said that the workforce of today has insatiable employees that continue to ask for more and more.

And that's really challenging because I think most employers are doing their absolute best to align resources in the areas where they think are going to be the most effective for their employees.

But there's a misalignment there.

They're missing the mark and they're not putting the money against the things that are gonna meet, be the most meaningful from their employees.

I think the tough part about that too is you can build it, but will they come?

And there's a lots of employees who are saying, I don't even know that certain benefits exist.

I'm relying on things like email to find out about benefits, which we know is completely flawed.

And then ultimately, even if they know that those benefits are there, they're having trouble even understanding what that benefit is or what the value is to them from a monetary standpoint.

- Listen, employers, employees wants, needs, stresses, and we are ultimately all in this together.

I know that sounds like a cliche, but it's true.

and thank you so much to Jacquelyne Reardon who is the head of US marketing at Franklin Templeton.

We thank you so much for joining us and we learned a lot from just listening to you Jacqui.

Thanks so much, we appreciate it.

- Thank you so much for having me, Steve.

- I’m Steve Adubato.

Thank you so much for watching.

We’ll see you next time.

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