The best of financial wellbeing in 2019

Financial wellbeing has increasingly been on the agenda of many HR professionals and 2019 was no exception. Employers are now beginning to understand the benefits implementing financial wellbeing programmes into an organisation can have. However, although they understand the importance, many do not know how or where to begin. To help you get started straight away, we’ve concluded some of the best bits from our blogs, webinars and events in the past year.

Survey your employees

One of the biggest steps you can take to kick starting your financial wellbeing strategy in 2020 is finding out where the financial stress lies within your organisation. In other words, ask your employees. Now most people probably wouldn’t react well to you asking them outright, so an anonymous survey can help you gain the information you need to provide support to the employees who need it the most. However, when asking your employees to take part in any survey, how you communicate it is as important as the survey itself. Remember this issue is sensitive and having the right comms going out, to the right people is key to a successful survey and a higher completion rate.

Empower employees

Give your employees easy to understand and engaging financial education. This will enable them to make better informed decisions relevant to their own financial situation. Having these resources available will only encourage employees to come forward and talk about their financial health; knowledge is power after all. This could be done via regular group presentations, one to one sessions, educational online wellbeing portals or a financial education programme.

Introduce a financial wellbeing programme

Following on from the point above, introducing a financial wellbeing programme can give employees the education and guidance they need to take control of their financial health. Giving them free support and tools to help them budget, save, invest or control their debt may significantly reduce their stress and help to improve their overall mental health.

Encourage starting an emergency fund

An emergency fund is an amount of money set aside in case an unexpected financial emergency arises – usually three to six months’ salary in savings. Building an emergency fund might be challenging to begin with but being able to use this money when faced with unforeseen circumstances can significantly reduce financial stress. Just having this money in the bank can go some way to help employees feel more financially prepared, avoiding the temptation of credit cards and loans.  You can help your employees by raising awareness and communicating the importance of having a fund like this. And best of all, its low cost with high impact.

 

Introducing a new wellbeing initiative into your wellbeing strategy might feel daunting. However, financial wellbeing shouldn’t. Take on board just one of these tips and you could start to improve the financial wellbeing of your employees, not just in 2020 but for the foreseeable future.

Secondsight offer a range of employee wellbeing initiatives including financial education. We can also help you pinpoint the highest levels of financial stress amongst your employees with the financial wellbeing assessment. Get in touch today to find out more.

Secondsight is a trading name of Foster Denovo Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Information correct as of 08/01/2020