Why Financial Wellbeing is key
Financial wellbeing is about a sense of security and feeling that you have enough money to meet your needs. It’s about being in control of your day-to-day finances and having the financial freedom to make choices that allow you to enjoy life. Sounds simple but for most people they don’t have it.
A lot has been written about mental health in recent years. I believe that good Financial Wellbeing is one of the foundations of good mental health. As Employers, you will see the benefits of employees who are in a good place with their mental health, through increased productivity, better outputs and less absence. Stats show that those who have poor financial health are 3.7 times more likely to be suffering from anxiety and 5.3 times more likely to be feeling depressed and finding it hard to carry on with daily life.
This is because Money continues to cause the most worries for the majority of people:
- 26 per cent of UK employees are worrying about money on an ongoing basis.
- 47% do not feel confident making decisions about financial products and services
- 55% of working-age adults do not feel that they understand enough about pensions to make decisions about saving for retirement
- 61% do not focus on the long term when it comes to money
And the majority of employees don’t feel comfortable talking or asking for help with their finances. 81 per cent of employees don’t feel comfortable talking about money at work and 71 per cent of employees don’t feel comfortable asking for help with financial matters from their employer. By joining the Conscious Companies subscriptions you can start to change those perceptions.
The cost of poor financial health related to areas such as presenteeism, absenteeism and retention is staggering and equates to between 13 and 17 per cent of payroll costs. A Conscious Companies subscription costs considerably less than this whilst also providing better employee engagement too.
How I help
I help businesses by ensuring I tailor my messages to your employees.
I do this first by understanding what benefits you provide as an employer. These are often forgotten by employees or not truly understood. So I make sure that your employees know about these and how they support their Financial Wellbeing. This is usually done through group sessions (online or offline) that incorporate other features detailed below.
I then offer all of your employees, a free one to one Financial Wellbeing session. This guidance session, seeks to understand more about their current situation and clarify which gaps they have. At the end of the session, they receive a personalised report with the outputs from our appointment. For Pro and Enterprise clients, the reports will be bespoke to your company and will detail your benefits offered throughout the report. This further strengthens the association the employee will have with your company and Financial Wellbeing. These meetings are held over the phone or via a Microsoft Teams session. For larger organisations, I usually offer this in line with a client’s birthday and promote this as an additional staff perk.
To ensure that Financial Wellbeing is promoted as a long term focus for your company, each month I supply a bespoke video and article that can be utilised on your company intranet or shared internally. These will mention or refer to your company in some way (usually in line with the benefits you offer) to again strengthen the perceived bond between employer and Financial Wellbeing.
As most people in the UK do not regularly engage in the services of a Financial Adviser, I allow your employees to engage with one on a regular basis for free. If they need additional services these can be offered but it is not a requirement that any employees have to do.