Kevin Bass: The early stages of Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty’s financial wellbeing journey

Financial wellbeing has certainly come into the spotlight in the past few months, as a topic in headline news as well as part of a wider wellbeing agenda offered by employers. It's an area that many employees are concerned about and for some financial worries may even eclipse what we think of as the classic workplace stressors.

Hesitant employers

As a result there are a number of benefit providers eager to fill the space with new and innovative solutions for lending and general financial awareness. However, some employers remain unsure about how to engage employees on financial matters.

Does it constitute as enticement or even advice if offered by the company, and could there be any repercussions if employees have a negative experience? Probably not if communicated properly, although decision-makers may still hesitate at the thought.

Wider financial benefit offering

Nevertheless one thing that remains quite likely is that the relationship of the future between employee and employer will encompass a wider financial offering, be it a continuation of flexible benefits, micro loans, LISAs, investment schemes or financial advice. Ignoring the issue won’t reduce the demand for it.

In the meantime employers may start to look at their own journey to see what sort of activities they’d like to provide under a financial wellbeing umbrella.

What usually comes up quite quickly in this process, like any wellbeing approach, is the wide range of relevance for various target groups. It’s common sense really – what an individual just entering the workforce is concerned about is likely of less concern to someone who is ready to retire, financially speaking.

Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty’s approach

That said there are some offerings that are relatively easy to adopt and I can share from my own experience what has resonated well with our employees. The following are a few ‘off the shelf’ examples:

Season ticket loans
Retirement seminars
Mortgage surgeries
Pension sessions
Will writing service

Taking mortgage surgeries, for instance, is something that has an impact on virtually everyone from first-time buyers to refinancers. By simply providing space for an independent broker to visit the office for brief 20-30 minute sessions once a quarter we’ve had employees snap up slots and provide excellent feedback.

Or perhaps looking at a seemingly ‘niche’ benefit of a will writing service, which had some initial scepticism, turned into a great offering that if nothing else got many employees to start thinking about the importance of being prepared for their dependents.

Lastly we’ve had great success with our pension provider by running informational sessions for staff on recent governmental changes or simply how much they may need to save for retirement.

Ultimately among many factors it will primarily depend on your employee base. Even if you don’t start with a bang of new benefits or offerings you may be able to test the waters with some light touch activities.

And while there will likely be some sceptics out there, if it’s valuable to employees and allows them to be more productive at work, it’s difficult to argue against.

This article was written by Kevin Bass, regional reward & performance manager, Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS)