What is financial wellbeing and how can you support employees to be financially ‘well’?

Money is still somewhat of a taboo subject and even talking about it with your family and friends can be difficult. That’s why, Talk Money, Talk Pensions Week is designed to get people to do just that, talk about money. Running from 18^th – 22^nd November, the theme of this year’s event is financial wellbeing, and looks to encourage everyone to improve their own financial wellbeing and the financial wellbeing of those around them. This is a great time to start the conversation with your employees and support them with improving their financial wellbeing.

It’s fair to say though, as an employer it can be hard to get your employees to openly talk about their finances but, providing them with the tools to be better financially prepared, can create more opportunities for employees to share their own financial learnings and knowledge and start to break down the money barrier in your business.

So what is financial wellbeing and how can you support employees to be financially ‘well’?

Financial wellbeing is knowing and feeling as though you have enough money to meet your financial needs and be in control of your everyday finances. It’s important to remember and to remind your employees that being financially well does not mean being wealthy, but more about being resilient and prepared for any unexpected costs life may throw at them.

Since auto-enrolment, almost everyone within your organisation will be saving for their retirement, so this is a good place to start with improving financial wellbeing. It’s never too early to save, and by helping your employees understand what they are saving for and how much they will need for their future can help them meet their desired retirement needs and most importantly give them peace of mind now and for their future.

However, whilst most people are encouraged to save for their future, some employees could be struggling to pay bills today. Ensuring your employees know some basics like budgeting, understanding interest rates, saving or even where to get some financial help, could significantly increase the financial wellbeing of your employees.

When your employees are less financially stressed and better in control of their finances, their productivity, engagement and moral will undoubtable increase too, resulting in your business benefiting from financially well employees too.

There are many things you can do as an employer to improve financial wellbeing including:

• encourage positive savings habits;
• teach management to recognise the signs of financially stressed employees;
• support employees with creating a financial plan;
• provide workplace savings and benefits schemes; and
• introduce a financial wellbeing programme.

Although as an employer it’s wise to encourage your employees to talk about money all year around, using an awareness event like Talk Money Week, can help kick start the conversations today.

Secondsight offer a variety of solutions to help improve the financial wellbeing of your employees. Talk to us today or visit https://second-sight.com/workplace-financial-education/ 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 18/11/2019