How to support your employees with Financial Wellbeing
As financial wellbeing becomes a ‘must have’ employee benefit, more HR professionals are seeking ways to support their employees in this area. Improving your employees’ financial wellness isn’t a quick fix, it is an aspiration, something to aim and work towards. Because of this it is important to not only offer support but to measure the effectiveness of the support provided on their financial wellbeing which is a constantly changing state as we pass through life stages.
It is becoming more prominent that employers are asked how they can support their staff with financial wellbeing, and it can seem a daunting task with little direction. To help guide you we have created a list of 5 ways to help improve your employees’ financial wellbeing, you can find the list below.
A practical and engaging way to help improve your employees’ financial wellbeing is to offer financial education workshops. It is important to understand that your workforce is made up of a range of workers at different stages of their careers and will have different personal circumstances and therefore the workshops should reflect this diversity. To be as beneficial as possible to all your employees these workshops should cover a range of demographics and topics which can be done through a range of workshops for employees, starting at early career all the way through to pre-retirement.
Financial requirements change as we pass through life stages and the workshops offered should reflect this change in needs. For example, an early career workshop should focus more on budgeting and understanding mortgages, whereas a pre-retirement course would have more information on pensions and retirement planning. In larger organisations holding separate workshops for different life stages of employees provides more specific information targeted at the appropriate employees.
If you work for an organisation with a small workforce however, then you might want to consider a broader workshop. A longer workshop can cover more topics, touching on more demographics and providing a ‘something for everyone’ for those attending.
It’s important to consider all the options when arranging your financial education workshops. Speak with your employees and learn what topics will benefit them. A financial wellbeing survey can be a great tool to help plan your workshop and ensure effectiveness.
More and more people today are working away from the office. It’s important to support these employees and make your financial wellbeing programme available to all.
The first option when it comes to a webinar is to have a pre-recorded workshop prepared. By choosing this option you have no time constraints, employees can access it at their own leisure. The downside is that it can be difficult to make a pre-recorded webinar engaging especially if people have questions, they may have to ask them at a different time.
The second option is to hold a live webinar. The benefit of this is that employees can still ask questions, just like in a workshop. The downside is that you will have time constraints, if an employee is unable to attend the time slot they may have to miss the event.
We have found the best way to combat this issue is to offer both. Arrange a date and time for the live webinar and then have this recorded and distributed to employees.
Financial education workshops and webinars are a great way to cover a range of topics. However, people will rarely feel comfortable discussing their own financial situation in front of co-workers. To combat this, it is worth considering one to one financial guidance sessions. These events allow employees to talk on a personal, one to one basis with a financial adviser. They can discuss everything financial including concerns and aspirations. The adviser can help guide them in meeting their financial goals.
These sessions work well following a workshop or webinar. The initial workshop can give an overview of topics, then allows the employees to discuss these on a more personal basis.
Financial guidance can also be supplied through online means. For example, Planned Futures online portal allows employees to ask a question to a team of qualified financial advisers.
Another way to help improve your employees’ financial wellbeing between events is by providing literature. Guides, videos and fact sheets should be prepared to help employees on specific issues they wish to understand in more detail.
It is effective to present literature to attendees following a workshop or webinar so that they are provided with additional reading material on the topics that have been discussed during their workshop or webinar. The literature also provides a useful summary for what has been covered within their workshop. As we are all human, taking in every part of a workshop can be a challenge but by providing literature at this point people can take in the information in their own time.
Additionally, it is also good practice to make financial literature available at any time. One way of doing this is to provide an online resource, a trustworthy place to go for financial information. Allowing employees to download and view financial guides at any time allows them to increase their knowledge at their own pace.
Next steps
To conclude, be sure to measure the effectiveness of the steps you take in bettering your employees’ financial wellbeing. We recommend taking feedback from your attendees following these events or providing financial resources to your staff. You can also go a step further by gathering data on which pieces of financial literature are most read or which areas of the workshops the attendees found most engaging or relevant. This feedback can help to determine which workshops and webinars are most effective to offer in the future.
