Financial Wellbeing Checklist

How Effective Is Your Current Financial Wellbeing Package?

Financial wellbeing is still new in the world of employee benefits; however, it is recognised as having a direct impact on both employee and company performance. A recent report by Neyber found that 33% of employees recognised financial worries as their biggest concern in 2017 (DNA of Financial Wellbeing, Neyber, 2017). As a result, these worries can manifest as an increase in days off sick, or reduced workplace performance (Neyber, 2017).

If you’re here, the likelihood is that already know how important financial wellbeing is for employees.

So, whether you want to check your current benefits are up to scratch, or you want to start a whole new financial wellbeing scheme, here are some ways that you can incorporate financial wellbeing in the workplace to help staff become happier, healthier and more productive.

Easy to Access

It sounds simple, but that’s how access to financial wellbeing programmes should be. Cut out the jargon and loads of pages of information on the intranet in favour of bite size resources that staff can access easily. To ensure the success of staff taking in their information, you need to be mindful of how convenient these resources are to access. There is no use in offering a webinar full of savings tips that runs on 5pm on a Friday. Most organisations today have a heavily dispersed workforce (4 million people in the UK working remotely according to The Independent, 2015) so any resources made available to staff need to be easy to access wherever they are, at any time of day. The best way to do this is to host all of these financial resources in one place. An employee benefits app is the best way to ensure staff have the opportunity to become financially aware on their own terms.

Fair Value Loans

Over 8 million people in the UK have admitted to facing money struggles (Guardian, 2016). This can result in members of staff having awkward conversations with HR to ask for an advance in their salary which is a tricky subject to have to tackle. Offering staff access to a fair value loan as an employee benefit allows staff to borrow money without HR seeing how much they have requested or what they are requesting it for. Employees can have access to loans without needing to take part in lots of credit checks and jumping through hoops to get the funds they need. Regardless of the reason, all staff should have the opportunity to access a loan at a fair interest rate. As a result, organisations could see less days off sick, happier staff and higher productivity levels as employees have one less thing to worry about.

One Size Doesn’t Fit All

With more generations in the workplace than ever before (Entrepreneur, 2017), it is important that organisations realise that financial concerns will vary for each member of staff. From Millennials paying off their student loads, to Gen X-ers preparing for retirement, there is a variety of subjects that can be covered that will help staff become financially aware. The less time spent worrying about finances, the more time staff can spend becoming engaged and happier at work. As useful as online resources and webinars are, in house education programmes can also be beneficial in helping employees to become financially aware. Lunch and learn sessions where experts come in to speak to staff and answer specific concerns provides a tailor-made education programme bound to please all.

Financial worries impact us all. Organisations can use these simple ideas to work towards creating a happier, more engaged and financially savvy workforce. With so much focus on Financial Wellbeing in the world of employee benefits, organisations must take notice and offer resources that are useful to all staff, educational and most importantly, are easy to access.

For more information on our wellbeing services and how we can help your staff, visit our Health and Wellbeing page, and don’t forget to download our Financial Wellbeing Report.

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