11 Jan 2023

Create a global financial wellbeing strategy that embraces everyone

A benefits strategy must be suited to a wide range of demographics. But how do you keep everyone in an organisation happy?

The world is diverse, so are opinions of how best to live a fulfilled and happy life. That sentiment spills into the workplace. As an employer, you might be thinking: How do I keep everyone happy, when everyone has different needs, desires and challenges? The key is to make sure your financial wellbeing programme is globally inclusive to cater to diverse populations.

For a benefits strategy to be effective, it must be suited to a wide range of demographics. A benefits programme needs to be adapted across a variation of demographics to ensure everyone, regardless of background, location or salary, feels supported by their employer.

Excluded employees means unprofitable businesses

A report by business coaching specialist BetterUp found that people who feel included, and that they belong, are:

75% less absent than employees who feel excluded, who equate to $2.5 million worth of lost productivity each year (per 10,000 people)
50% less likely to leave than employees who feel excluded - that’s a cost of around $10 million each year (per 10,000 people).
56% more likely to perform better - that’s a gain of $52 million each year (per 10,000 people).

What is an inclusive financial wellness programme?

An inclusive financial wellness programme needs to be totally impartial. That means employees shouldn’t be exposed to financial education littered with services or products with an ulterior motive. Secondly, the programme should be built on financial education underpinned by technology designed for inclusion and developed from behavioural psychology.

The main aim of an inclusive financial wellness programme is to ensure employees are equipped with all the information they need to make the best choices for them and their circumstances – and that includes awareness of all employee benefits available to them.

There will be benefits in your stack that could significantly improve your employee’s financial wellness, but they might not know about it yet. Reminding and prompting employees of all that’s on offer is critical.

How do I get started with a global inclusive financial wellness programme?

First, use data to understand your people’s diverse financial needs. You can then build a full picture of their financial world by assessing key insights holistically, with information that often gets overlooked, for example how many dependents they have.

With data, you can support the 49% of people who feel excluded from the financial ecosystem. Nudge wrote about this recently in its global report Disrupt damaging money habits.