Case study: FirstRand Bank’s integrated approach to financial wellbeing

The UK presence of South African banking group FirstRand Bank has offices in London and Cardiff. Head of HR Laura Griffiths has been focused on improving financial wellbeing for all of FirstRand's staff. "There are a lot of different demographics across the business and in our two locations, but we want to have an integrated approach to financial wellbeing that works for everyone."

“We are in financial services, and we understand the duty of care that we have to our customers,” she adds. “We talk about creating easy to understand products for the business to use – but we don’t always do the same for our staff. As an employer, we need to make sure our employees can manage their finances well, and be served as well as our customers are.”

“In the past, we might have fallen into the trap of assuming that because we are a bank that all of our staff are financially savvy. But it’s not always the case,” she adds. “We’ve also been guilty of assuming that one size fits all when it comes to financial benefits, so we are looking at a more personal approach now.”

FirstRand already had a competitive set of financial benefits, ranging from the pension scheme to season ticket loans and discount options for staff. “But we realised that wasn’t enough,” says Griffiths. “Employees weren’t engaging with their benefits or accessing them, and they weren’t explained in clear language.”

Griffiths and her team made a number of changes. First, they carried out a survey to find out what employees wanted, how to communicate more effectively with them and to introduce a more personal approach. “Technology is a great enabler in supporting more individual benefits,” says Griffiths.

“Also, we realised that employees don’t always want to speak to their employer if they are struggling financially, so our Employee Assistance Programme is an important part of our offering.”

The company also looked at making sure its salary levels were competitive. “A part of financial wellbeing is the need for staff to feel that they are fairly paid, so we benchmark and make sure that we pay fairly across the organisation. We have also introduced salary exchange and bonus exchange into our pension scheme, and share the savings from that with our employees.”

Griffiths is also very aware that employees can’t switch off from money worries at work. “Personally, I don’t think we can ignore the link between financial wellbeing and performance. People don’t walk through the door and forget their concerns.” That blend between work and home life is part of a bigger societal shift, she says. “A healthy and supported workforce is becoming more important.”

But employers alone can’t fix the problem of financial wellbeing, particularly when it comes to saving for the future. “There is a growing acceptance by employees that they need to take responsibility themselves for their financial future and for funding their retirement,” concludes Griffiths.