About Brightside

Brightside created Financial Care, a new category in employee benefits. We’re on a mission to improve the financial health of the 7 in 10 working families living paycheck to paycheck. How? By partnering with progressive employers who understand financial wellness is a critical pillar to the wellbeing of their employees - and their organization. We then combine behavioral science, technology, and expertise to meet employees where they are, in the moments that matter most, and support them in establishing financial comfort. Our (human) Financial Assistants get to know every person they serve, listening without judgment to help them understand and overcome their unique needs and barriers to financial health. All to ultimately stretch the paycheck, minimize stress, and maximize hope. That - is our difference - providing Financial Care that leads to financial wellbeing. See Brightside in action:

Why Financial Care?

There is a financial crisis facing employees. With roughly three-quarters of Americans living paycheck to paycheck, families are struggling to make ends meet. Finding a financial solution that does not take advantage of the financially vulnerable and sick can be nearly impossible. Employees and their families need one place to go for unbiased support and help solving their unique financial issues. In addition, financially stressed employees cost millions of dollars to employers in terms of lost productivity, turnover, poor employee health, and morale, while hindering diversity.

Brightside helps employees with all financial needs, providing custom, individualized, hands-on assistance. Brightside leverages proprietary behavioral science and financial models to identify and treat the root causes of financial stress. With this approach, Brightside can address immediate financial emergencies while encouraging and influencing long-term financial habits. Brightside does this by making it easy for employees to make good financial decisions by doing the legwork and going beyond educating or simply presenting options available. Brightside financial assistants think creatively to identify all available options, including traditional consumer solutions, paycheck-linked options, and government or local community resources. Employees consistently work with the same financial assistant, who will encourage ongoing behavioral changes to avoid future problems on the path to financial stability and wellness.

Why Brightside?

Four critical elements differentiate Brightside Financial Care from financial wellness providers:

• Real solutions. Brightside offers platform partners that can provide financial solutions employees can’t find or access independently. We also assess all the options available for an employee to ensure that we are personalizing the best options. We do not make money from our platform partner relationships; we have them on our platform to offer options that are generally better than what employees can find on their own.
• Technology and people built to make things easy for your employees. A core tenet of behavioral economics is that the best way to influence behavior is to make something easy to do. Our technology not only offers a complete picture of an employee’s finances, but it also makes implementation of a good financial decision easy by automating ongoing execution and monitoring. Our people and culture are built to go the “extra mile” and do the legwork to help employees overcome the barriers that exist to implementing a good financial decision.
• Behavioral science. Financial wellness has been built around educating people on “rational” financial decisions. Brightside understands the evidence that financial education, even personalized and just-in-time, is insufficient. We leverage the latest behavioral science to focus on what works to influence families to make better financial decisions. Our Financial Assistants and rules engines leverage our proprietary behavioral science and financial models to get the employee to the right outcome for them and their family.
• Simplicity. Having one place to go for all financial needs for employees and employers simplifies life for all. Implementing dozens of solutions to support their employees, e.g., a financial coach, student loan solutions, emergency savings programs, etc., is burdensome on already overworked benefits teams. Brightside handles all this, so you have safe, effective, and personalized financial benefits for your employees.

Proven Results

Brightside drives ROI for employers by engaging significantly more employees than traditional financial wellness solutions. We have demonstrated that we can deliver up to 50% engagement at employers whose average salary is less than $100,000 and drive real results in retention, productivity, safety, health care costs, and outcome benefits of improving population financial health. Brightside financial assistants typically identify savings for employees of $1,200 annually on average. Furthermore, Brightside’s unique model drives outcomes such as a 41% reduction in turnover, 14 fewer days of unpaid leave per employee, and higher productivity and job satisfaction rates. For employees—who have given Brightside a net promoter score of over 90—one of our current clients said it best: “I finally feel like I’m managing my money, instead of my money managing me.”