Reward Director masterclass: How to make financial wellbeing a part of your workplace culture
As a result, supporting financial wellbeing has joined physical and mental as a central part of employers’ overall wellbeing strategy – we outline six ways to drive impact on this issue.
1. Culture
It is a bit of a cliché to say “what gets measured gets done”, but there is some truth in it. Without a meaningful success measure it is difficult to demonstrate the impact of any workplace initiative, including financial wellbeing. To be truly integrated, and demonstrate that you take employee financial wellbeing seriously, any measure of impact needs to be clear and well understood.
Action to close the gender pay gap has accelerated since KPI measurement was implemented and boards were forced to report their status publicly. Similarly, financial wellbeing metrics need to be formally agreed and performance monitored. Senior support will be critical to maintain momentum; a board-level sponsor will help to drive progress on the issue.
2. Support
A relatively short time ago, financial wellbeing was not even recognised terminology, let alone supporting employees with personal financial challenges, which is now deemed to be a key employer responsibility. The scope of the reward team’s responsibility is expanding to include benefits that provide greater support for employees outside of the workplace.
Part of a successful financial wellbeing initiative will include promoting a culture of openness around financial issues, similar to the progress that has been made in normalising conversations about mental health. HR teams need to clearly define their roles in this and improve staff capability to be able to handle these conversation sensitively. It is also important that any training also explains relevant financial regulation so line managers do not inadvertently stray into giving financial advice.
3. Benefits
It is now well recognised that a holistic wellbeing strategy needs to cover three areas: physical, mental and financial. Of the three, financial wellbeing is the last to be formulised into specific benefit offers. The market has become crowded and the challenge for reward teams is less about finding a provider, as it is to select the one that can meet all of their employees’ needs.
Obviously salary is front of mind when employees think about their finances. As much as financial wellbeing benefits do not change salary levels, they do help influence the value employees can get from their salary by stretching a pay packet further and building better financial habits. A well-rounded financial wellbeing benefits offering includes access to salary linked borrowing, saving and insurance products and financial education. These factors can make a tangible difference in staff retention and help recruitment teams present organisations as an employer of choice.
4. Communication
When you have the boards’ support and have selected your financial wellbeing benefits, effective communication to your employees becomes the next big priority.
It is fundamental to think about communications over the long term. A large scale benefits launch will create a spike in interest but people can fall into financial difficulty at any time, so it is important to maintain awareness so employees know the support is there when they need it.
A content bank of useful videos, articles and online resources can help with this so employees are fully aware of the information they have accessible, for example, via newsletter alerts.
5. Mobile and digital
Access should be a top consideration when rolling out any benefit designed to help employees’ lives outside of work. This is especially true for financial wellbeing as financial decisions, especially those involving debt, are not always made quickly and may need discussing with a spouse or partner. A benefit that can only be accessed at work may create a barrier to engagement. This is doubly true for employers with distributed workforces who do not have access to a work computer.
6. Reducing the cost of working
It costs to work – childcare, travel costs, lunches and socialising are just a few of the expenses employees take on to be in the workplace.
Financial support and advice is important, but there are other working practices that can help reduce the pressure some employees may feel. For example, flexi-working and working from home can reduce costs. There are also some common elements of workplace culture that can be a source of stress for people in a difficult financial situation: birthday collections, or employee-funded social activities can both be isolating. Making line managers aware of these potential implications can help to create a culture of understanding and also prompt teams to come up with ideas that make socialising at work less reliant on money.
Overall, the research speaks for itself, a happy workforce translates to a productive workforce. It is the responsibility of organisations to recognise the role financial wellbeing plays in employee health and take the necessary steps to promote it.
This article was provided by Salary Finance.
In partnership with Salary Finance Inc
We understand the impact finances have on our health, our happiness, our home life & our work life.
