Four top tips for getting your team to talk about money

Conversations have the power to change lives. They help to create supportive teams and communities where we can talk openly about mental health and feel empowered to seek help when we need it.

Money and mental health are intrinsically connected, with many studies (including our own, Rethinking Financial Wellbeing) concluding that money worries are some of the biggest sources of stress and poor mental health in the UK. But talking about money is often considered taboo. So, if we’re going to solve the challenge of financial wellbeing, we need to start with breaking down the barriers to talking about money.

Employers have a critical role to play to help change the conversation about money, and to make talking about money and mental health easier for everyone. Look at the success that has come from employers promoting open dialogues about mental health – it has changed the public narrative and normalised conversations about mental health, helping it to become a business imperative, rather than a nice-to-have, according to the Harvard Business Review.

Work is a natural place to talk about money. It’s the place we earn it and we’re surrounded by colleagues earning similar amounts. Employers need to think about how they can empower their employees to talk about money, take control of their finances and improve their mental health. With today being #TimetoTalk Day (3 February), we’ve compiled some top tips for engaging your team in money conversations.

1. Talk about hopes, not hardship - most people using our service aren’t coming to us because they’re in financial trouble. Instead, they want to make sure they’re on track to reach their life goals and optimise their financial plans. Consider conducting an anonymous survey to show you’re serious about understanding the challenges your employees face and lead with questions about their hopes and goals.

2. Keep it visible - giving a name to ‘financial wellbeing’ can help to normalise it and allow it to be talked about. If employers consistently put the topic on the table alongside other big topics like physical health and mental health, it helps to show your employees that you view it as a priority. As with mental health initiatives, events, webinars and toolkits are a great way to ease people into a subject, or to start a conversation.

3. Lead from the front - it’s incredibly powerful when senior leaders share their own personal stories and help to break down the barriers to talking about money. Why not start every financial wellbeing event with a senior leader telling a personal story?

4. Use lifestage moments to start a conversation - the trick to great financial coaching is that it is truly bespoke to the needs of individuals. One way employers can get closer to this for their employees is to prepare financial wellbeing milestone guides that managers can share with new parents, new homeowners, etc, that show some of the common financial concerns.

Get the full list of seven top tips or download our #TimetoTalk toolkit.

The authors are Don Stewart, head coach, and Neasa McNulty, employer partnerships director, Octopus MoneyCoach.

Article provided by Octopus MoneyCoach.