We spend a lot of our lives thinking about money in one way or another. Whether we’re saving for a house, a holiday or retirement, there’s an expectation to understand things like credit ratings, interest, and plenty of other jargon that we are simply not taught at school. In this article, we explore how companies can promote financial wellbeing for employees, ease their concerns and provide the right support and advice.
Currently, the onus is often put on individuals to learn for themselves about various financial matters (and teach, if we have dependents). However, it's clear employees could do with help from their place of work. According to Financial Capability:
- 39% of adults (20.3 million) don’t feel confident managing their money
- 11.5 million have less than £100 in savings
- nearly nine million of us are in serious debt, and only around a third receive help.
The government’s Money and Pensions Service say 8 out of 10 employees take their money stresses to work, which can impact their performance. The impact has been recorded as 4.2 million working days lost due to poor financial wellbeing. Which in monetary terms is in the region of £626 million in output.
Perhaps this is why there is a level of stigma around it. Debt and salary discussions oftentimes make us uncomfortable, whether at work or home. And yet financial wellbeing for employees has a huge impact on our health and happiness. Interestingly, here’s what the NHS has to say:
NHS Employers highlight that a common misconception around financial wellbeing is that it isn’t the employer’s responsibility, it’s down to the individual. The reality is that financial wellbeing is a shared responsibility between the employer and employee.
So, what is financial wellbeing, and exactly how can we promote it at work within our organisations? Let’s dive in…
What is financial wellbeing?
Good financial wellbeing for employees is having a sense of security in your earnings and having enough money to meet your needs. While it may not include having an abundance of disposable income, it is about being reasonably comfortable to make ends meet each month, with some to save and spare.
According to Money and Pensions Service’s 10-year UK strategy for financial wellbeing, this can be broken down into three pillars: foundations, day-to-day and looking ahead. The details under these are:
Find out what to include in a financial wellness programme here.
How to promote financial wellbeing for employees within your company
The FlexGenius platform allows you to send communications directly from the interface. This enables you to send regular updates about the benefits and services your company offers your employees. We recommend integrating content about the financial packages you have available within these. This could also include services such as access to financial advisors, debt advice and pension planning tools.
You promote financial wellbeing for employees at work in the following ways:
- Make employees aware of free, confidential, independent advice, such as the Money and Pensions Service.
- Ensure all employees are aware of and have access to your benefits platform, what’s available and how to make use of them.
- Tackle the stigma that's associated with money and money problems by making it a talking point. We don’t mean asking questions or putting anyone on the spot. Instead, highlight the above and use debt advice in the examples to help make positive changes.
Summary
By understanding financial wellbeing and your responsibility as an employer, you can help drive positive change in your employees. As HR professionals, your role is to educate your staff on the relevant benefits available to them and how they can help make use of them.
If you would like to find out how our flexible benefits platform could make it easier to promote and communicate what’s available to your team, book a demo with us today.