Top tips for supporting employee wellbeing, financially and mentally
Awareness of mental and financial wellbeing has grown significantly in recent years, along with recognition of the clear link between the two. It’s widely understood that some mental health conditions can lead to financial difficulty, and poor financial wellbeing can itself lead to mental health conditions such as depression or anxiety.
While mental wellbeing support is considered by many employers to be a key pillar of any employee wellbeing strategy, employers also need to look at how they can better support their employees’ financial wellbeing.
Create a clear financial wellbeing strategy
Organisations looking to implement some form of financial wellbeing support in the workplace often look to a provider first. Start by understanding people’s needs. Employee surveys should include financial wellbeing questions, or perhaps run a specific financial survey. The difference between what you might think your workers need support with, and the types of support they would ultimately want prioritised, can be surprising.
Sourcing wellbeing and education
There is lots of talk about financial wellbeing, but what does that mean? Some financial wellbeing providers will offer education and this can achieve a strong foundation for your workforce. Others provide lighter touch information using a range of publicly available resources.
However, it’s key to consider what is available to really help employees if they have a potential financial crisis – will a provider help them take relevant action once they know they have a problem and where do they direct them for further help?
Make sure employees know
Your solution could be the greatest and most relevant ever, but if employees don’t know about it or how to access it, they’ll never gain the benefit of it.
Start by creating a clear communication and sharing it through your most successful channels.
If you use a benefits platform or a company intranet, try creating a separate section for wellbeing, and within that the various pillars you provide support for (eg physical health, mental health, financial health, emotional health, etc). Remember, the fewer clicks or actions you can put between the employee and the solution, the more likely they are to access it and benefit from it.
Adapt your communications
Even prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, employees have worked in different environments, from project sites to shop floors, offices to factories. Now that flexible working is a core element of working life for many organisations, understanding how best to communicate with staff is more important than ever.
An e-mail would work for those with access to a company address, but what about those that don’t ? A multi-channel approach is often needed for most modern workforces – don’t forget posters in canteens and even on the back of bathroom doors. Put yourself in the shoes of your workforce, and understand their interaction points with the workplace, and how you can best communicate accordingly.
Provide a safe space
Finally, employees facing mental health issues need a safe space where they can discuss their concerns. For some this could be a colleague, while others they may prefer to speak with somebody away from work.
Ensure management are trained to handle these situations, especially with knowledge of the support channels available in the workplace. Services like employee assistance programmes traditionally have a poor take-up rate, but for most it may just be that they don’t know what help they can be, let alone how to contact them.
Employees need to know these services offer anonymity and can help on a wide range of topics from financial worries to bereavement and a lot in between. Ensure employees know this and have these signposted.
Supplied by REBA Associate Member, PIB Employee Benefits
PIB Employee Benefits is a forward-thinking consulting business.
