22 Jun 2023

3 tips for joining up financial and employee wellbeing strategies

Combining the two can be a more effective way of delivering a holistic benefits package

Employee wellbeing continues to be a priority for most workplaces. According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s report Health and Wellbeing at Work 2022, employee wellbeing is on 70% of senior leaders’ agendas – up from 55% in 2018.

Similarly, employers are increasingly recognising the importance of financial wellbeing. Standard Life’s annual employer survey shows that nine in 10 employers say financial wellbeing is important – a trend that’s continued over the last two consecutive years.

While both are clearly priorities to employers, it can be more effective to tackle them as one entity. Indeed, financial and employee wellbeing are closely linked and share many of the same elements – so joining them up can be a good way to bolster your employee benefits package.

Employee wellbeing vs financial wellbeing

Financial wellbeing encompasses many areas of an employee’s financial life. An employee is likely to feel financially well if they feel secure and in control of their finances. That means:

They know how much money they have coming in and going out
They’re able to meet short-term priorities like mortgage or rent payments
They’re saving for the long-term – such as into a pension plan

Employee wellbeing, on the other hand, looks at the whole of an employee’s world, including physical and mental health, work-life balance, social relationships and – notably – their financial wellbeing.

Furthermore, both financial and employee wellbeing have the same positive impacts within the workplace. They can both:

Enhance productivity and performance
Prevent absenteeism and stress
Improve retention and recruitment

Combining your employee and financial wellbeing strategies could help strengthen your total reward package and make it easier for employees to understand what support is on offer. With your strategies aligned, it could help boost the benefits that good employee and financial wellbeing can bring.

Tips for combining strategies

Whether you’re building a strategy from scratch or adding to your existing one, here are some tips that could help you bring your strategies together.

1. Enhance your employee assistance programme

Your employee assistance programme (EAP) is a good place start when bringing your financial and employee wellbeing strategies together.

EAPs provide a range of counselling and referral services that can support employees through a variety of personal or professional pressures that can affect their health and wellbeing. This makes It a good fit for adding dedicated financial wellbeing support.

For example, you could include referrals to independent money and debt advice services, such as the government’s Money and Pensions Service and MoneyHelper. These offer practical guidance to help employees manage their money, as well as point them towards free and local debt advisers.

Evolving your EAP to include financial wellbeing support gives employees a one-stop-shop for finding the guidance they need.

2. Strengthen your mental health support

There’s a strong link between financial worry and poor mental health. Money worries cause stress, disturbed sleep and issues with concentration. This can affect physical and mental health, and overall wellbeing.

Fortunately, talking about money can really help. Research by the Money and Pensions Service shows that people who talk about money can:

Feel less stressed or anxious
Build their financial confidence
Make better financial decisions

As an employer, you can help encourage conversations about money by creating a safe and non-judgemental space for employees to talk.

Adding a mental health first aider (MHFA) programme to your EAP or wellbeing strategy could help create the space your employees need. MHFAs can be a reassuring presence to employees who may be struggling under the weight of financial worry and can also provide signposting to external resources.

3. Review your benefit scheme

Is your benefit scheme working hard enough to support your employee and financial wellbeing strategies?

Consider if the benefits on offer bring real value to your employees. For example, providing a free or subsidised gym membership would support an active and healthy lifestyle.

As well as the physical benefits, exercise can improve mental health by encouraging better sleep and helping reduce stress and anxiety. This can feed into supporting employees’ financial wellbeing too.

In addition, look at ways to support employees who may be struggling with the rising cost of living. For example, you could offer employee discount or cashback schemes to help reduce the cost of everyday essentials such as groceries. Also consider providing free financial coaching or educational resources that help employees to budget and manage money.

For more insights into financial wellbeing, including resources on how you can help support your employees, visit the Standard Life Financial Wellbeing hub.