How the whole workforce can utilise financial advice services
The aim of advice is to provide the knowledge and expertise so people can make an informed decision about their personal finances, effectively learning what someone with years of knowledge and expertise would do in your personal situation.
Technology disruption and more topically, the global pandemic, has forced a shakeup in how financial advice is being delivered. Currently, you’re more likely to have a video or conference meeting with personalised recommendations delivered via email or a snazzy app rather than by letter.
When to seek advice and how to access it
Financial Education in the workplace plays a pivotal role in providing employees with the information and tools to take control of their personal finances, but also helps in troubleshooting when financial advice might be necessary. Three main factors impact how employees use financial advice services: education, guidance and advice.
Education
Group financial education sessions in the office or via webinars work extremely well, giving useful hints and tips about assessing employees’ circumstances and guiding them as to the steps they may need to take to improve their financial situation.
The way in which employees consume and interact with financial education and by extension, advice services, will differ greatly. It is therefore important that all employees can access the information in a way which suits them, for instance hosting the financial education content on the company intranet and distributing materials to employees. Doing this will ensure that they can access the information they need, on demand. It’s great for employees to engage in a group session but even better if they can refer back when the time is right for them. Group sessions are a fantastic way to provide the basic tools and education around financial wellbeing.
Guidance
Many businesses have identified that specific workshops tailored for selected groups of individuals are necessary. Take pension planning for example; government reforms mean that tapering of annual and lifetime pension allowances will impact a number of employees, not just the highest earners.
Financial education guidance sessions should sign post when employees might need to take financial advice at various points in their life, such as: nearing retirement, welcoming a new baby, buying a house, inheriting, share plan vesting, joining a new company and so on.
Awareness and understanding of how financial concepts may impact an individual is great, but the real question is always, when should action be taken? The key is to use tailored session content to empower your employees to recognise when to move from education and guidance to seeking financial advice.
Advice
Some companies venture further and provide access to financial advisors, independent to the company, who after an initial meeting with the employee, calculate what level of pension contributions should be made. If financial advice isn’t sought in this area, mistakes could be costly.
One of our corporate clients notes that ‘the combination of seminars individual consultations and access to bespoke advice worked really well with employees at all levels’. The key to one-to-one consultation sessions is that employees leave with the understanding of when exactly they may need to seek financial advice and where to find reliable and trustworthy advice.
Overall, a good financial education programme, combined with one-to-one consultations providing guidance to individuals and access to advice, is an effective and relatively easy way to enable the workforce to take control of their finances and secure their futures.
This article is provided by AAG Financial Education.
Supplied by REBA Associate Member, AAG Financial Education
At AAG Financial Education we provide your employees with the knowledge of their financial future.
