Video: Employee Wellness Conference: Organisations need to put more effort into financial wellbeing

Organisations are largely overlooking the importance of financial wellbeing, according to Close Brothers, with less than a quarter (24%) including it within their general wellbeing strategies.

See Close Brothers presentation ‘What financial wellness looks like in action’ in full.

Speaking at the REBA Employee Wellness Conference 2016 Close Brothers’ head of financial education Jeanette Makings said that the company’s findings showed that businesses need to rethink their offer to include financial wellness. “This is not something to be ignored for much longer,” she said.

The company’s research showed that 16% of companies were looking to put something in place. It also showed that of those who offer financial wellbeing nearly half (49%) do it via a financial education but nearly a third (30%) only via debt counselling.

This is despite financial wellbeing not just being about those in debt. “People who do have enough money worry about what they are going to do with it and people who have more than enough money worry about what they are going to do with it,” she said.

Her colleague Simon Williams, financial planner at Close Brothers, who was also speaking at the event, outlined seven steps to financial wellness that he urged employers and individuals to spend time on. These included budgeting and planning, managing debt, protection, savings, investments, retirement and tax planning.

This video was filmed at the REBA Employee Wellness Conference 2016.