Five steps towards enhancing your employees’ financial wellbeing

Words by: Harriet Shepherd

When we’re stressed, it can affect our ability to concentrate on even the simplest tasks. When you apply that to a work setting, it’s easy to see how our ability to be effective is likely to be impaired. 

In a 2018 survey, three-quarters of respondents said they had felt so stressed in the past year that they had been overwhelmed or unable to cope.

That was before the Covid19 pandemic, which saw an increase in the number of adults experiencing some form of depression double from 10% to 21%. 

Employers can assume that at any given time, at least some of their employees will be affected by stress and/or mental-health issues that hinder their ability to do their job well.  

The impact of financial worries  

According to a Money and Pensions Service survey, finances are a daily concern for 16% of adults in the UK, with nearly half the adult population saying they had worried about money once a week or more in the previous month3. 

It can also have a big impact on absenteeism. It’s estimated that some 4.2 million worker days are lost each year due to a lack of financial wellbeing, equating to £626 million in lost output. 

This issue needs to be taken seriously by employers, primarily for the benefit of their employees, but also for the success of the organisation and the economy as a whole.

This means offering employees practical and emotional support for their financial wellbeing and their general mental health.

Here are five ways in which you can start to do this: 

 Introduce financial wellbeing awareness 

Educating employees on financial terminology and encouraging conversations around money can help employees to understand the nature of financial stress and how it might be affecting them. 

Many employees might not realise that finance is the main cause of their stress. It might be that these conversations lead to more people understanding the roots of their financial worries. 

Increase awareness by joining the conversation 

Mental Health Awareness Week (typically held in mid-May), Stress Awareness Month (each April) and Debt Awareness Week (which in 2021 was held in March) are all awareness days that take place each year.

They pose fantastic opportunities for employers to take part in wider discussions about financial wellbeing and mental health. 

These are dates for the diary that encourage people to talk more openly about their finances and enable them to tackle concerns, thereby reducing stress levels. 

Offer practical help 

Using the time when employees are at work to offer help and provide resources is a great way to get the message across. After all, this is when they are most likely to access it.  

Providing things like workshops and information packs will help employees get a better sense of how to deal with their financial worries. It could just give them the introduction they need to help get them started.  

You could use opportunities when employees are deciding whether or not they want to renew certain workplace benefits, such as salary sacrifice, to do this. In the run-up to that window, you can put in place a communications plan and/or run workshops to help people understand those benefits and what they cost. Articulating it at the right time could make all the difference. 

Engage employees effectively 

Clearly explaining the various financial rewards and schemes you offer and making information accessible will make employees even more likely to engage with them. 

Offer specific sessions about those rewards and help employees to understand the packages that are financially linked, such as health insurance, protection insurance and discounts with local firms. These things are often overlooked, but they can make a real difference to people. 

Any information should be communicated on a timely basis. Research suggests that support is more impactful when it is related to circumstance or if there are follow-up actions. 

Provide access to professionals 

If an employee wants to talk to someone but they're not ready to speak to an adviser, you can still provide them with useful one-to-one support. Reputable financial advisers will have partners who will carry out guidance sessions with employees.

Employers can engage with these financial wellbeing providers to conduct one-to-one guidance sessions with employees. This could simply be an initial chat to get them started and help them to decide what their next step will be. 

Harriet Shepherd is the Financial Wellbeing Manager at St. James’s Place Wealth Management