Financial wellbeing: today’s biggest workplace issue?

Financial wellbeing is no-longer deemed to be a fad – it is a serious workplace issue that has a wide range business implications, and it is generally accepted that it should be included within employers’ overall health and wellbeing strategies.

Yet overcoming cost concerns, measuring return on investment and getting buy-in from senior leaders, can be difficult. Below we round-up four recent reports into financial wellbeing in the workplace to give you the latest data and tools needed to build a business case.

Looking at what is already in place

Earlier this year the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) published a paper on the growing interest in employee financial wellbeing and how to build a business case for it. However, it highlighted that there was a general lack of understanding of the current state of employees’ financial wellbeing, as it was an area that was not covered by staff engagement surveys.

One of the key suggestions put forward by the paper, which reflected on a recent Money Advice Service-funded study also conducted by IES, was to audit existing benefits – such as the employee assistance programme – to identify financial wellbeing support. By assessing what is already in place, employers can repackage and communicate these benefits under an employee financial wellbeing umbrella.

Taking action

Salary Finance’s The Employer’s Guide to Financial Wellbeing offers an insight into the deep and varied impact of personal money worries and the cost to employers caused by a workforce suffering from low financial wellbeing.

Looking at the impact of financial concerns on staff, the survey revealed that financial wellbeing is not linked to salary. One of the groups with the highest percentage of money worries (49 per cent) were those earning more than £100k pa. It also highlighted that 77 per cent of employees trust their employer, demonstrating that there is an opportunity for employers to help their employees in this area.

As well as providing statistics on the current state of employees' financial wellness, it provides a financial wellbeing toolkit with a framework for action.

Putting financial wellbeing into context

For those employers looking to back-up their business case with firm figures on the impact of financial concerns on employees and businesses, Neyber’s The DNA of Financial Wellbeing research and Barnett Waddingham’s Beyond Pensions report are two good places to start.

Neyber surveyed 10,000 employees and 580 employers to understand more about how employees’ financial wellbeing relates to their work life. It found that there is a disconnect between what employers think employees’ top concerns are (work/life balance) and the reality (financial worries), while it also links changes in performance to financial pressures.

Barnett Waddingham’s report highlights the current provision of workplace financial wellbeing, with 88 per cent of respondent organisations saying they are concerned about the financial issues their employees are struggling with and agree that there is a need for guidance.

These are just a handful of the studies featured in REBA’s reports section that touch on workplace financial wellbeing, and that can help you to build a business case for this key area of wellbeing.

The REBA Reports Library has hundreds of reports, surveys and other handy documents pulled together from a myriad government departments, academics, independent organisations and suppliers. We have pulled them together for our members to use to find the data they need to support business cases, presentations and other reward work.

Dawn Lewis is content editor at the Reward & Employee Benefits Association.