Video tutorial: YBS’ Tracey Newton discusses its award winning focus on employee financial wellbeing

A culture of financial wellbeing is a key part of Yorkshire Building Society's (YBS Group) people plan and business strategy, according to Tracey Newton, director of people performance at YBS Group.

YBS was the winner of the Financial category at the REBA Employee Wellbeing Awards 2019, after it introduced a wave of financial wellness programmes and engagement campaigns aimed at helping its own employees take control of their personal finances.

Newton presented a case study on how YBS Group had introduced these activities into the business in order to build a culture of financial wellbeing to delegates at the REBA FinWell Forum. She said the company’s focus as a financial organisation had meant that it made sense to look at the financial wellbeing of its staff too. A huge amount of organisational change a few years ago that saw some branch closures and change had initially sparked the wellbeing agenda, she said.

“We looked at resilience, at mental health, at physical health but the other piece that comes through that is financial resilience and financial health and how people can manage their finances in the right way and be ready for change,” she said.

The fact that as a service organisation people are at the heart of what YBS Group does made looking after its staff, and particularly their mental health, even more important, she explained.

2017 saw the company speak to around 1,000 of its colleagues to understand their financial health. She said the results made difficult reading. “There were a few numbers we didn’t like,” she said. They included the fact that 1 in 10 colleagues said they were regularly losing sleep over money worries. “As soon as you see that you can’t ignore it,” she said.

For YBS Group good financial health is about having security and freedom of choice, today and in the future, supported through three elements, financial education, ease of access and help when struggling, explained Newton.

“Often you go straight to the struggling point but we wanted to build it in a different way and help colleagues feel that sense of control,” she said.

The company has run a number of campaigns for staff, the first about taking control, second about getting into a savings habit and finally a campaign about affording and coping with the unexpected. “We have created a culture of financial wellbeing. We’ve started the conversation,” she said.

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