Common Cents, a program of the RISE Foundation in Memphis, delivers basic financial education to hourly wage employees in the workplace. While financial education programs for employees is not necessarily innovative, Common Cents is for several reasons: The curriculum is tailored to the needs of each business and its employees, and the program generates income for RISE. RISE (Responsibility, Initiative, Solutions, Empowerment ) was founded by the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis, Memphis Housing Authority, and United Way of the Mid-South in October 1999 with a vision of creating strategies that help Memphis public housing residents achieve financial self-sufficiency.

The organization’s fundamental approach involved rigorous financial literacy training and family asset development through Save Up, a matched savings program called individual development accounts (IDAs). More than 270 public housing residents have completed financial education courses and become regular savers; assets purchased to date by Save Up participants exceed $3.8 million. From this positive experience with Save Up, RISE demonstrated that even very low-income participants have the capacity to create assets, given proper financial literacy training and incentives.

In 2005, RISE undertook an extensive strategic planning process that resulted in a goal to broaden the reach of RISE beyond public housing residents and to increase community impact. Strategically it became vital for RISE to begin to generate a stream of earned income that it could use to advance its mission.

The result was Common Cents. The financial education program began operation in mid-2007 after extensive curriculum development and testing of several versions of the pilot program in workplace settings. The course is delivered by RISE staff on lunch breaks, before work begins or during after-work sessions. The course length is three to six sessions, each an hour long. The cost to employers varies depending on the number of sessions requested. The typical cost for a complete course is about $2,000 for a class of 20 employees. The fees are used to defray a portion of program expenses incurred by RISE.

The initial approach was to offer a standardized curriculum to all employers; but, after some experience in working with human resource managers in various companies, it became clear that a “one size fits all” approach was not the best. Courses are now tailored to the needs of specific companies and their workers. As well, course participants are offered the opportunity to bring their individual questions to RISE staff in a follow-up session.

Ten companies have purchased Common Cents classes for their employees, and 270 employees have completed the course. The interactive classes address money attitudes, spending plans, credit scores, debt management, banking basics and planning toward retirement. One key objective of the class is to get employees to actively manage their credit reports in order to improve their credit scores.

Why is financial education important to employers? Many employers are besieged by employees with personal financial problems. Employee financial problems cost employers both directly through increased costs and indirectly through decreased productivity. Constant requests for pay advances and wage garnishments impose heavy burdens on human resources departments. Each paper check processed for employees without direct deposit costs employers about $1.80. Lack of participation in company-sponsored retirement plans limits employer flexibility because, in some cases, low participation increases plan costs on a per-employee basis and restricts available plan options.

Employees with personal financial problems are stressed employees who are distracted, less productive, more often absent and very often experience health problems. Common Cents tackles financial illiteracy in the workplace.

Corky Neale is the director of innovation and research for the RISE Foundation.  He also coordinates a communitywide collaborative of about 125 nonprofits, financial institutions and public agencies called the Memphis Debt Collaborative, which addresses financial literacy and abusive lending issues in Memphis. Neale has been a community economic development practitioner since 1978 and has served in both public sector and private sector positions, including as executive director of the Knox Housing Partnership and deputy director of housing and community development for the City of Memphis.  

exploring: searching or traveling for the purpose of discovery

innovation: to add value by applying a new idea or method to something established