Employer Program Example:
Pilot Program by Center for Economic Progress and Northside Federal Credit Union (Illinois)

What they did:

Worked with three employers to provide:

• Free tax preparation
• Financial education workshops
• Low-cost financial services through the credit union (checking, savings, and affordable loans as an alternative to predatory lenders)

What worked well:

• Popular with both employers and employees; both would like them to continue
• Financial education workshops were most popular with employees: close to a third them participated
• Employers were active participants in doing outreach to promote the program
• Employers said they would consider increasing their outreach efforts and giving employees time off to participate

What was challenging:

• The free tax prep service, located off-site at the Credit Union, was under-utilized due to limited daytime hours and a late start in the season
• The services were very labor-intensive for the Center to provide
• The Center had to take the lead with employers to make things happen

Lessons learned:

• Convenience of services was primary in employee participation—if possible, do tax prep at the workplace
• Employees identified credit counseling, debt management, mortgage assistance, and savings and investment counseling as high priority services they would like to add
• It will be important in the future to design lower-costs ways to deliver services—but there is huge potential

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