Video tutorial: Hargreaves Lansdown’s Heather Cooper on a joined-up approach to financial wellbeing

Ensuring a joined-up approach to financial wellbeing has allowed Hargreaves Lansdown to better engage its staff and think about the people in the organisation with the same dedication it has to its clients, according to Heather Cooper, chief people officer of Hargreaves Lansdown.

She told delegates at REBA’s FinWell Forum that it was important to understand the needs of all employees and the problems they may be facing financially, in order to build the business case for change and deliver something truly relevant. “If you are going to engage your colleagues in a way which is meaningful you first have to really understand what they are facing. You have to get close to that to understand and listen and then adapt what you do in quite a holistic way.”

A number of changes were made to improve life for staff at Hargreaves Lansdown, including better employee benefits and options such as flexible working. However she said the company’s money week was one of its most successful initiatives and will be repeated annually.

Money Week included speakers and drop in one-on-one sessions that allowed staff to hearfrom experts. “Topics that hit the mark were things like how to buy a house for the first time, how you might get a mortgage, how remortgaging works, through to investing for your children to sessions on financial resilience, how to write a will etc. It was really interesting. What we found was that wherever you were in life there was something you could come along to,” she said.

She highlighted how colleagues at different lifestages had benefited from the changes but said ensuring a comprehensive financial wellbeing strategy is far from easy. “Financial wellbeing isn’t a simple thing to do when you are offering it as a benefit. There is a great deal of complexity to getting it right because everybody’s needs are so unique and different. It needs to be thought through well to meet the needs of everybody that you’ve got.”

However she said the results of having a financial wellbeing strategy had been hugely positive – including engagement scores up 12 points, 45% of colleagues increasing their pension to the maximum and 40% buying holiday and reducing salary for a better work life balance. She said in the future other topics will also be explored – including debt management, saving for property and better financial support and advice for the company’s older staff.

This video was recorded at the REBA FinWell Forum, held in London on 7 March 2019.