Financial wellbeing is about a sense of security and feeling as though 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.
Money worries and wellbeing are directly linked. Organisations will look at providing support around physical and mental wellbeing and will assume that a good salary package or pension scheme will be enough to ease an employees financial concerns.
However, there is much more to financial wellbeing than that. Often problems can occur from lack of education as financial guidance isn’t taught in school. This lack of education can lead to money worries which can cause serious health issues.
Financial wellbeing is highly sought after across many businesses. As the cost of living crisis continues, employees are looking for solutions for their financial needs, as well as wanting reassurance and knowledge on personal money matters.
We partnered with financial specialists Lifetime to provide the necessary guidance and support you and your employees require.
Lifetime provides multiple resources to help boost a person’s financial wellbeing, such as an educational hub, informative webinars and a relationship with a dedicated coach.
They also provide financial plans for your employees, based on the information submitted. These individual, tailor-made plans show a variety of scenarios so that your employees can clearly see exactly where they stand right now, and what options they have for the future, including changing their retirement age, property decisions and accessing pensions.
Why is Financial Wellbeing important in the Workplace?
Financial wellbeing has a huge impact on everyday life, including in the workplace. When people are going through financial distress, or have questions with no answers, it can negatively affect their mental health and how they make decisions.
When inaction is no longer an option, implementing a financial wellbeing programme is key in introducing your employees to a better financial future.
Money worries are the biggest cause of stress for UK employees. They are damaging to business too, often resulting in staff sickness, presenteeism and poor morale. There is a strong case for financial wellbeing in the workplace:
- 90% of employees agreed that financial concerns
- have an impact in the workplace (1)
- 50% of people wait 12 months or longerbefore getting help/ advice – Increasing on average their debt by £2.5k (1)
- 4.2 million worker days each year are lost in absences because of a lack of financial wellbeing. That’s the equivalent of £626 million in lost output. (2)
- 57% of employees have no money left at the end of the month (3)
- 94% of UK employees admit to worrying about money and, of these, 77% say that money worries impact them at work. (4)
- 59% cite finances as main cause of stress. (5)
- Nearly 7 in 10 UK employers believe staff performance is negatively affected when employees are under financial pressure. (6)
Sources:
- Step Change Debt Charity, 2020
- Centre of Economics & Business Research, 2018
- finance.org.uk, 2018
- Close Brothers, The Financial Wellbeing Index, 2019
- PWC-Employee Financial Wellness Survey, 2019
- Neyber, 2018