Why your financial wellbeing strategy needs an MOT

There are strong commercial and risk management arguments why companies are taking employee financial health very seriously.

When it comes to employee financial health, the breadth and depth of support on offer to employees varies massively from workplace to workplace.

In truth, it’s a tricky landscape to navigate.

The financial wellbeing supplier market is awash with providers and numbers are growing by the day.

It’s not exactly the wild west, but it is difficult for employers and procurement teams, given much of this market has developed without any influence from independent third parties or intermediaries.

Good and bad practice

Employees crave support.

From their perspective, something is also better than nothing, and I’ve seen massively positive feedback given on support that was certainly sub-par.

I would counsel that your workforce need to have a voice, but this needs to be balanced with an appreciation that employees don’t know what they don’t know.

Most of the players in this market are ultimately selling a product; a pension scheme; debt; wealth management. And this can open up the possibility of bias - whether that’s subconscious or fully intended.

When an employee feels like they are being sold to, this creates potential gaps in terms of trust and satisfaction; precisely not what you want to be introducing into the workplace.

Positive financial wellbeing involves influencing what employees think, feel, know and do.

The idealist in me says that best practice must involve some independent expertise; a provider is paid for the amount of support given, rather than remuneration dependent on the actions of an individual employee or a workforce as a whole.

So what support do you offer and what does the selection and monitoring of each provider look like?

Auditing the status quo

We suggest there are four key pillars employers should consider when testing whether what they have in place is fit for purpose.

Here are some headline points for you to consider:

1. What is your strategic direction?

There are lots of variables here linked to policy and oversight, but perhaps a good way to think about this is to compare where are you with mental health.

If an employee has a mental health issue now, they’re typically prepared to come forward with more than a hope that their employer would help them.

You might not be there yet, but are you heading towards a similar cultural position for financial wellbeing? You may not see this as the ideal, but who is defining what good looks like and how you are getting there?

2. What benefits do you offer that are relevant to financial wellbeing?

Money health takes many forms. The range of solutions are growing, so ensuring all bases are covered is now an ongoing process.

Well-governed core benefits like a pension are still relevant but so might be the availability of mortgage advice or a will-writing service.

Salary exchange is going through something of an evolution, so a gap analysis of what is offered, as well as how, may add some value.

3. The rise of technology-led engagement

As the technological world advances, measuring the quality, flexibility and utilisation of digital support is another part of this exercise that needs to be regularly repeated. Most developments in the financial wellbeing space are unsurprisingly technology-led, both operationally and practically, as well from an engagement perspective.

4. The importance of people-led engagement

Communication is always important. Employee engagement can be about benefits and education can be a benefit in its’ own right. Consider the independence of the people being introduced to your workforce across all your benefits and the commercial model applied. Are people falling through the cracks and what happens then?

Our mission is to improve employee health. We seek to do so as truly independent experts. An MOT of your financial wellbeing strategy helps with a helicopter view, as part of a business case for change.

Whether the cost of living crisis has ended is debatable, but as a final point, it’s important to grasp that tackling this aspect of employee wellbeing is no longer just about doing the right thing.

Even if measuring the value in real money terms is a challenge, if you look hard enough there are strong commercial and risk management arguments to enable progress.