Financial Wellbeing and Mental Health: Breaking the Taboo | FlexGenius Benefits

When considering typical sources of workplace stress, it's easy to mention impending deadlines, rapid project turnarounds, and unpredictable market fluctuations.

Yet, while these are substantial contributors, they aren't the sole stressors for UK employees. The ongoing cost-of-living crisis has highlighted the crucial yet frequently overlooked connection between financial well-being and mental health. Research indicates that this impact is both significant and far-reaching.

What are the consequences of financial stress?

A financial wellness survey by PWC found that 57% identified finances as the leading cause of stress in their lives. Financial stress can trigger panic and anxiety, cause sleep problems, negatively affect personal relationships, and hamper work performance.   

The knock-on effect for employers can range from absenteeism and presenteeism to high staff turnover, low morale, and increased on-the-job accidents.

On the other hand, when employees feel financially secure, they report higher levels of happiness and engagement. Without money worries weighing heavily on their minds, they can focus better at work and are more productive as a result.

So, why aren’t more people talking about the clear link between money and mental health?

Money talk remains a taboo subject for most.

While attitudes towards money can vary between generations, most people still consider discussing personal finances taboo. That’s why many people choose to bottle up their money worries rather than ask for help. 

There’s also a trend among younger people to avoid speaking about money due to a lack of experience. However, this reluctance to ask questions, share experiences, or seek support can leave them financially vulnerable and prone to making expensive mistakes when it comes to borrowing and spending habits.  

As a people professional looking to alleviate stress in the workplace, you need to break this taboo by promoting an open and supportive environment around money.

It all starts with being aware of the different types of financial stress and how to spot them before encouraging your employees to improve their financial literacy via your employee benefits package.   

How to spot financial stress among your employees

Financial stress is defined as having difficulty meeting expenses or worrying about current or future finances.

There are two components of financial stress: It can either be objective (based on facts) or subjective (based on feelings).

• Objective financial difficulty occurs when someone simply doesn’t have enough funds to cover their expenses or repay their debts.
• Subjective perceptions about financial security are unique to each individual and can vary depending on age, gender, education, or ethnic group. Major life events, such as marriage, having a child, or retirement, can also affect these perceptions.    

With this in mind, it can be difficult to pinpoint from afar that someone is suffering from financial stress and the reasons why. However, the signs of financial stress often overlap with indicators of stress and burnout in general.

If you notice an employee has started to display the following traits, you may want to address their financial well-being as a matter of priority:

• Increased absenteeism
• Growing agitation and irritability
• Difficulty concentrating and meeting deadlines
• Low morale and productivity
• Anxiety or depression

Studies also show that financial stress disproportionately affects people with lower incomes, with those in the lowest income brackets being significantly more likely to experience mental health issues. Regularly reviewing performance, salaries and bonuses can help you identify money worries among your staff before they spiral out of control.   

Enhancing financial well-being via employee benefits

The good news is that once you’ve identified financial well-being concerns, there are several modern employee benefits solutions that you can implement to improve financial literacy and ease money-related stress and anxiety.

• By offering access to financial education services, you can help staff address those objective financial concerns with guidance around budgeting and saving. You can also demystify money for younger employees with jargon-free guides to explain complex financial terminology.
• Meanwhile, flexible financial security benefits, such as critical illness, income protection, and death in service cover, might help relieve those subjective financial worries. By reassuring your staff that they (and their family) will be looked after should the worst happen, you could lift a perceived financial weight off their shoulders.  

In summary 

Ultimately, improving financial literacy among your employees can reduce the stigma surrounding money talk. As a result, they’ll feel empowered to seek help rather than let financial stress chip away at their mental health.

With a flexible employee benefits platform like FlexGenius, you can support financial well-being by offering expert advice to improve financial know-how, calculation tools to help forecast retirement income and products to protect your staff and their dependents. 

If you’d like to join companies experiencing increased employee engagement and retention by offering thousands of benefits, sign up to FlexGenius today.

To find out more about FlexGenius or book a demo of our leading flexible employee benefits software solution, book a demo now or visit our contact page or give our team a call on 0800 652 4745.

This article was first published on the REBA website.  FlexGenius is a member of REBA, the Reward and Employee Benefits Association.