The Fidelity Student
Debt Program

Student Debt is a $1.4 trillion-dollar societal problem, effecting more than 44 million Americans.


PROJECT BACKGROUND
Student loan debt is the second-largest type of debt in the United States, after mortgages. The average undergraduate borrower owes ~$30k and 16% of all borrowers are behind on their payments. A quarter of college graduates ages 25 to 39 with loans say they are either finding it difficult to get by financially or are just getting by, compared with 9% of those without loans. This debt can have a significant impact on an individual financial future, including their ability to buy a home, or save for retirement (especially for women and people of color).

Fidelity's student loan program is a suite of financial products and tools developed to help address the $1.7 trillion dollar student debt problem in the United States. The Fidelity Student Loan Benefit can be offered by employers to help their workforce pay off their student loans faster, as well as develop repayment and refinancing strategies. These employers can expect to see increased retention, better recruitment metrics and employees able to pay off their loans about 4 years sooner.

I worked with a distributed global team to bring Fidelity's student debt benefit (Student Debt Direct) to market for pilot clients. Led the design of digital experiences and workflows for plan sponsors (employers), benefit recipients (employees), and the program administrators (Fidelity Associates). Post pilot launch, I created marketing and collateral to support sales.

GOALS
Employees are changing jobs for small increases in compensation due to their student loans, and traditional retirement benefits and healthcare saving accounts have less relevance to these younger associates. With the debt carrying millennial workforce increasing, there are pockets of high turn-over and hiring is expensive and costly.

70%

of 2016 graduates have student debt, with
loan balances averaging $37,000

79%

of Fidelity plan participants say student loans
interfere with saving for retirement

How might we provide benefits that matter?
54% of Millennials report that paying off student loans comes first and they’ll worry about saving for retirement later. (American Student Assistance Young Workers and Student Debt Survey Report Methodology, February 2017).

How might we attract and retain top talent?
86% of young workers say that they would commit to an employer for 5 years if they helped pay off their student loans. (American Student Assistance Young Workers and Student Debt Survey Report Methodology, February 2017).

Program Design
Ongoing Monthly Cycle

USE CASES
To facilitate the benefit program there are three different web platforms, facing three different users:

With such a large share of top talent graduating with student debt — roughly 70% of bachelor’s degree recipients leave college with student loans — student loan repayment can be an attractive recruiting tool. And Fidelity’s announcement will likely push more fence-sitters off the fence…

– MarketWatch

ROLE
UX design, visual design, marketing design

STAKEHOLDERS
Fidelity Investments, Fidelity Labs, Fidelity Workplace Investing, pilot clients

TARGET AUDIENCE
Employers and eligible employees

Employee Experience
User: Eligible Employees

Enrollment Flow
A benefit recipient must enroll in the program online, enter their loan information and designate the loan to receive payment.

Benefit Dashboard
Once enrolled the employee can track employer contributions and progress against their balance on a dashboard. Functionality also Includes the ability to manage your benefit and a secure messaging platform to communicate with Fidelity.

Employer Experience
User: Plan Sponsor

Through the Plan Sponsor Workstation the employer is able to track and manage the benefit they are providing. Employer's can manage their list of eligible employees, track payment cycles, monitor high level metrics about usage and impact down to the individual employee.

Benefit Dashboard
Lorem

Benefit Administration Tool
User: Fidelity Associate

Fidelity, acting as the benefit administrator manages the participants, their loans, and money movement across bank partners, loan servicers and employers.

When the partner bank receives the funding from the client, Fidelity initiates a payment cycle to the eligible participants included in the list supplied by the employer. Administrators track these payment cycles, manage employee lists, and validate and identify loans that are not in good order.

Complex workflows
Complex workflows require an elevated rigor in communicating UI states and their corresponding functionality. These artifacts enable precise story writing.

RETENTION

OUTCOMES
Employees are changing jobs for small increases in compensation due to their student loans, and traditional retirement benefits and healthcare saving accounts have less relevance to these younger associates. With the debt carrying millennial workforce increasing, there are pockets of high turn-over and hiring is expensive and costly.

+26%

Improved employee retention and reduced turnover by 26% among 200 plan sponsors.

“Having student loans completely changed my frame of mind about where I want to work. Now and until they are paid off, compensation is the biggest driver and or pull to any job move and that's primarily because of my student loans.”

67%

67% of recruiters said it helped to build candidate interest in open positions.

RECRUITMENT

- 4yrs

After 5 years in the program, participants will be able to pay off their loans about 4 years sooner.

FINANCIAL WELLNESS