Financial Wellbeing at Work

It’s not uncommon that your employees may face financial worries while working for you. Whether it’s dealing with debt, concerns about savings or simply monthly budgeting.

More workplaces recognise the impact that debt, money worries and stress has on productivity and absenteeism. But why should you care as an employer?

Help boost your employee’s wellbeing and allow them to live a meaningful life by encouraging financial wellbeing.

What is financial wellbeing?

Similar to emotional or physical wellbeing, it relates to the state of feeling happy. It is how employees feel about their financial situation.

Positive employee financial wellbeing will have them feeling they have enough money to meet life’s needs, giving them a sense of security.

People with healthy financial wellbeing can meet their long-term financial goals and make informed choices that allow them to enjoy life.

The impact of financial worries on employees

Almost half of all employees worry they cannot retire, given the state of their finances, and one in three looses sleep because of this.

• 78% of employees believe financial worries increased levels of stress.
• 43% believe financial worries and managing the situation lowers productivity.
• 31% believe it leads to increased absenteeism.
• 22% saw it leading to increased staff turnover.

Financial wellbeing employee benefits

Mental health and financial wellbeing are closely related. It is very common to have financial factors affecting health and wellbeing, namely stress and depression.

For example, 46% of employees with debt problems also have a mental health issue, according to the CIPD wellbeing at work survey.

Increasing financial wellbeing benefits an employee’s overall wellbeing, and it can help lead to greater resilience, innovation, and productivity at work.

It also benefits the physical health of your employees. With less stress over financial problems, employees may  have improved sleep. With less financial stress, an employee’s blood pressure may  drop and so will their risk of heart disease.

With a physically and mentally healthy employee, you get one who is rarely absent and who performs to a higher standard.

Employers can help financial health and wellbeing

The cost of lost productivity because of poor health and wellbeing in the UK currently stands at around £57 billion. So encouraging mental, physical, and financial wellbeing in the workplace is vital to staying productive.

The workplace is a great environment to engage and guide people on how to manage their finances. It is a place where people already engage with money through wages and pensions. You can do this through a workplace financial wellbeing program.

Our resources provide advice on some of the following:

• Financial education courses or advice in their benefits package, helping to improve employees’ ability to manage their money.
• Access to affordable loans where repayment is deducted directly from the salary.
• Free debt advice can help reduce the pressure some employees may be facing.
• Access to accounts that make investing easy and where payments are directly deducted from the salary.
• Investment, savings and ISA advice.

One key way employees can help face their financial issues is by talking about it. This is where Health Assured comes in.

Support your employees with Health Assured

Let’s talk about how Health Assured’s EAP (Employee Assistance Programme) can support you and your business. With  our qualified counsellors and wellbeing specialists, we can help create a financial wellbeing strategy for your employees.

With our EAP, you get access to our counsellors 24/7, 365 and our mental, physical and financial wellbeing resources.

We also have a brilliant new mental, physical and financial wellbeing app. It provides proactive wellbeing tools and engaging features to enhance our existing services. We’ve built the app’s features from the ground up to improve the user’s mental, physical and financial health by using personal metrics, personalised content and four-week plans to set goals and celebrate achievements.

Arrange a call back from a workplace wellbeing expert today.