Building financial resilience at scale: why the National Coalition for Workplace Savings matters
Financial wellbeing has firmly established itself as a priority for reward and benefits professionals. Ongoing cost-of-living pressures mean many employees remain financially insecure, with limited savings to fall back on. For employers, thisdirectly impacts the productivity, engagement and retention of staff.
Against this backdrop, the National Coalition for Workplace Savings represents a timely and important development. Bringing together employers, policymakers and industry stakeholders, it aims to tackle one of the most persistent challenges in financial wellbeing: helping people build accessible, short-term savings.
What is the National Coalition for Workplace Savings?
The National Coalition for Workplace Savings is a UK-wide initiative focused on increasing the number of working-age adults with an emergency savings buffer. Convened by the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS), The Investing and Saving Alliance (TISA) and Nest Insight, its core aim is to scale workplace-based savings solutions across employers.
The coalition views the workplace as one of the most effective channels for improving financial resilience. By supporting employees to save in ways that are easy, visible and consistent, employers can play a pivotal role in helping individuals build financial security.
The key aims of the coalition are to drive employer engagement, increase employee participation in saving and ultimately ensure more people have a meaningful financial buffer.
Why workplace savings, and why now?
The need for action is urgent, with MoneyView survey from MaPS showing that 27% of UK adults couldn’t pay an unexpected bill of £300. This means that even relatively small, unexpected expenses can create stress and instability.
Workplace-based approaches can help address this challenge by integrating saving into the employee experience. Through a combination of accessible tools, structured solutions and behavioural nudges, employees are better supported to save regularly and build positive financial habits.
This is critical because the barrier is often behavioural rather than financial. Many people intend to save but struggle to do so consistently.
For employers, the benefits are tangible. Evidence from Nest Insight shows that people with a savings buffer often report higher levels of life satisfaction and are more productive at work as a result. Supporting employees to build even modest savings can improve focus, reduce anxiety and strengthen overall workforce resilience.
Despite these advantages, workplace savings solutions are not yet widely embedded. This gap highlights the need for coordinated action and the opportunity for employers to take a more proactive role.
The role of employers
The coalition presents reward and benefits leaders with a clear opportunity to engage and become proactive in supporting employees.
The success of workplace pensions has already demonstrated the impact employers can have in shaping financial behaviours. There is now an opportunity to extend that influence beyond long-term retirement outcomes to address immediate financial resilience.
Employers who engage with the coalition can help shape emerging best practice, contribute to policy development and position themselves at the forefront of financial wellbeing strategy.
More importantly, they can make a tangible difference to employees’ day-to-day financial security by establishing a workplace savings scheme and driving up employee participation in it.
How to get involved
Joining the coalition is free, and organisations can register their interest via its website: National Coalition for Workplace Savings - TISA
By doing so, employers and industry partners can stay informed, access insights and resources, and contribute to a growing movement focused on expanding workplace savings.
In summary
The challenge of low savings is too significant for any one organisation to solve alone. The National Coalition for Workplace Savings is a coordinated and practical response, leveraging the workplace to make saving easier, more inclusive and more effective.
For the reward profession, this is a great opportunity to influence change. Building financial wellbeing among employees can go beyond focusing on pensions or pay, and start to expand into building better savings habits, financial resilience and overall financial wellbeing.
The coalition offers a compelling opportunity to work together on supporting this change.
Supplied by REBA Associate Member, Money & Pensions Service (MaPS)
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