Accenture’s Paul Duggan: reframe financial wellbeing benefits and reskilling
Financial wellbeing benefits should be reframed so employees better understand their value, particularly as people have longer working lives, Paul Duggan, Accenture’s Global Health and Wellbeing Lead (EMEA), told the Rethinking benefits to attract, retain and engage as age demographics shift REBA webinar on 20 March 2024.
All of Accenture’s UK workforce receive life insurance when they join the firm. “But how many of them have bought life insurance separately?” he asked. Other financial wellbeing benefits like discount schemes are often not used.
“Being able to see the sort of financial total of what [people] can get if they lean into their benefits has become much more relevant with the cost of living and ongoing inflation,” he added.
“It’s about reframing some of the things that are already there as financial [wellbeing] benefits, whereas previously they may just have been seen as perks.”
Overcome negativity around reskilling
Companies should also tackle the negative feelings that may come with the concept of reskilling for some employees, with younger generations coming into the workplace with an agile mindset in which they fully expect to reskill at some point.
“In our middle years there are still a lot of us who aren’t really open to the idea of reskilling,” he said. “Emotionally it feels like a threat to your career.”
Employers should take the stress out of reskilling and recast it as a positive step.
“People are letting go of things that they thought were going to sustain them all the way through their careers. Acknowledging that discomfort is really important.”
More than one-third (35%) of webinar attendees said they are concerned the skills gap in their organisations will widen as age demographics shift. Nearly half (48%) were “a little” concerned and 17% weren’t concerned.
