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Innovation Profile: Financial Empowerment in the Workplace

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UPDATE APRIL 2011:

CFED and the San Francisco Office of Financial Empowerment proudly announce the publication of Financial Empowerment through Employer Engagement: Migrating a City to a Paperless Payday. Co-authored by Eugénie FitzGerald, Project Consultant and Leigh Phillips, Manager of the San Francisco Office of Financial Empowerment, the report summarizes the findings from research designed to understand the environment of electronic pay in San Francisco, learn about business and employee perspectives on electronic payment options, and identify the barriers to, impact on and opportunities for shifting to a fully electronic payroll citywide. Read more and download the report by following this link.

Innovation Update: August 2010

This team has completed key research to understand the direct deposit landscape in San Francisco and designed an implementation plan to shift the city of San Francisco to a paperless payday. Specifically, primary research has included a focus group with employees who had been transitioned by their employer from paperchecks to electronic pay. Further, informed by results from a broad survey of San Francisco's workforce, a diverse group of local companies and nonprofits were engaged in an innovative co-design employer engagement model. The aggregate research findings have resulted in the refinement of an implementation strategy to engage private employers in this initiative and improve the financial security of low-income families in San Francisco. This has culminated in the writing of both a comprehensive implementation plan and a summary project plan, the latter soon being available to share with external parties and including the key elements of the strategy moving forward.

In addition to the research, initial conversations brokering agreements with key partners such as payroll companies, workforce development and asset-building nonprofits, business associations and city departments has taken place. Further, a Request for Investment (RFI) for a robust payroll card for city employees was released and a card selected, bringing together innovation in the payroll card sector and a mainstream financial institution. Finally, a design company has been engaged and is starting to put together the branding specs and marketing elements.

Eugénie is currently engaged with completing the initial design efforts by writing up the primary research with Leigh Phillips and CFED's Ida Rademacher to disseminate the findings broadly to other cities and thought leaders. She is also putting together a promotional video to tell the asset-building story behind shifting to a paperless payday and highlighting the innovations from the Office of the Treasurer. At this stage all of the foundational elements underpinning this initiative are in place, and the Office of the Treasurer is preparing to take the next step, hiring a full-time project implementer to carry this work forward.

About the Innovation

By creating a partnership among key players in the Bay Area, the City and other employers will shift to a paperless payday, a win-win for employees and employers alike. The initiative will connect workers with bank accounts or stored-value cards, representing the next phase in the City’s push to enroll underbanked residents in financial and savings services that will help them save money, build assets and enter the financial mainstream. This effort will build, from program concept to implementation, a platform for educating and enlisting supporters to help launch the program with the assistance of innovation@cfed.

About the Innovator

Led by Treasurer José Cisneros, the San Francisco Office of Financial Empowerment and CFED Innovator-in-Residence Eugénie FitzGerald, the initiative represents a collaborative effort that highlights the importance of working together to achieve innovation. The Innovator-in-Residence program welcomes such efforts to expand economic opportunity.

CFED gratefully acknowledges support from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, including a $650,000 operating grant over two years, which expands our capacity to provide initiatives such as the Innovator-in-Residence program and supports our work with FitzGerald, Treasurer Cisneros and the San Francisco Office of Financial Empowerment.

Tags: Credit & Finance, Financial Education, Jobs, Saving & Investment, Underserved