Report: Thinking Beyond Reward
Key findings:
- Stress costs UK businesses 12.5 million working days a year and financial concerns are often a major contributory factor. However, reward strategies – and government policy – are focused on long-term saving, which fails to address the financial needs of our changing society.
- Businesses must take control of communication to provide employees with a better understanding of the value of benefits if they are to improve financial wellness.
- There’s more to reward than pensions, and businesses seeking to address financial wellness must be open to the range of financial goals their employees may have.
- Employers should be prepared to drop benefit structures that are neither needed nor wanted, as they will never improve an individual’s financial wellness.
- Employers should focus on education, not just communication, and make no assumptions based on individuals’ academic achievements – most employees do not have a good grasp of financial matters.
- If financial wellness is not improved, businesses face a crisis among employees.
JLT surveyed 2,500 employees for its research. It concludes that old reward strategies are not helping to promote financial wellness, so a new approach must be adopted.