17 Jan 2019

Measuring the impact money worries have on staff to help build a financial wellbeing strategy

Does this story sound familiar to you?

You’ve heard the buzzword “Financial Wellbeing” used amongst the HR community for several years now and it’s firmly on your radar for the upcoming year. You send one of your team along to a big wellbeing conference to gather information around which suppliers are in the market to help you tackle this issue. They report back and buried in the glossy brochures they place on your desk there’s a lot for you to choose from, you decide to attend an event yourself to make a final decision. You attend the event, listen to a great speaker, invite them to come and pitch, which they do, convincingly citing many great case studies, you launch the service and…nothing. Engagement in the service is low, for the few people who have used it you’re not sure how much impact it’s having, and you’re left scratching your head wondering where it all went wrong.

Hopefully, the above is an exaggeration but for some of you it may ring true. Many HR professionals that we speak to talk about common challenges when it comes to employee financial wellbeing. What is the difference between financial guidance and financial advice for example? Should we provide retail discounts? Is there a risk to the employer? Ultimately, in our experience the most important factor when looking to build an effective financial wellbeing strategy is to make it easy to understand, implement and measure for a diverse employee audience. It can be done!

Know your internal customer

Many people think that debt management is a ‘top worry’ for all. Interestingly though, in all the companies surveyed by Wealth Wizards, debt has not been the number one issue. It has varied company to company and often we have seen a marked difference in geographical location when a company has multiple sites, with multiple demographics. People are individuals. One size does not fit all. For a truly inclusive financial well being strategy it is most important to know your target audience first. Just as a marketer would in the external customer environment. Why should an internal customer be any different! It is imperative to do your research first!

Thankfully, technology has made this easier for us. Collecting robust data from your workforce allows you to make a more informed decision on how to tackle financial wellbeing and track how these data points change over time.

Consider both immediate and long-term needs

In a culture of instant gratification, there is a temptation to focus a benefits program solely on what employees want today, not what they need in the long run. This may explain why we have seen an outburst of instant-gratification benefits which, for example, lend employees money for the latest tech and gadgets; give them 2-for-1 restaurant vouchers and the ability to upgrade company cars. These programs, although giving employees what they want initially, have, if anything, damaged the long-term financial health of the workforce. We need to inspire them to think about the future, whilst also addressing immediate challenges. Financial well being is a way of life and not a quick fix!

That’s not to say there isn’t a place for these types of benefits, but there needs to be some balance. At a time when a record 60% of British people in poverty live in a household where someone is in work, the focus on what is really going to help employees must shift and employers must tackle what employees need, which is help with their finances.

Combine data, education and advice

If employers don’t know what their employees want and need, what are they to do?

The most impactful financial wellbeing programs are the ones that have listened to their employees and understand their financial priorities. They collate this data and utilise it to implement a financial wellbeing strategy that will work for their entire workforce today and inform them of changes in the future. Even better, employees are engaged in a way that is jargon free and attempts to empathise with their individual circumstances. If a person is inspired and motivated to think about things in a different way, that makes sense for them and makes them feel better about their finances – the impact can be…huge!

Good workforce financial wellbeing is consistently linked to decreased absenteeism and improved productivity. In any case, it is definitely linked to making people better. Even better, if those people have achieved this thanks to a progressive employer.

Financial Wellbeing is so much more than just a buzz word and should be in the fabric, the DNA of every employer – this is what we are all working towards.

This article was provided by Wealth Wizards.