BUSINESS HELPDESK HELP DESK
SUPPORTING EMPLOYEES’ FINANCIAL WELL-BEING
As interest rates and energy bills continue to rise, Charlie McHugh, Head of Client Insight at Halborns Ltd, the employment law firm that provides the BMF Intelligent Employment Plus Service, has advice on supporting your team
WITH INFLATION AT its highest rate on record1, it comes as no surprise that financial pressures are the leading cause of stress for employees2 and a primary reason for short and long-term absences3.
This can impact productivity, performance and team morale, all of which creates a convincing business case for financial well-being remaining high on people agendas for 2023. How can employers help build an environment that supports positive financial well-being?
Policies
A financial well-being policy should cover how employees can talk with you, share their concerns, and discuss any support available to them (such as an Employee Assistance Programme). You can set out any company benefits that may support employees to make savings or reduce their outgoings, and signpost external resources for further guidance.
Also think about a ‘second job’ policy as around 1.2 million people in the UK have a second job to deal with rising costs. Second jobs can mean you have to contend with increased tiredness and conflict, but you don’t have to rule them out entirely. Embracing employees’ additional interests can provide greater loyalty and innovation and open conversations can provide an opportunity to make arrangements work for you both. We’ve built a financial well- being toolkit that includes both these policies (and more!) to help you support employees through challenges they might be facing. Use the contact details below to find out more.
Supporting your managers Having the right policies in place helps managers approach conversations with confidence by knowing what your business has in place to help and external support mechanisms to signpost employees to. Managers aren’t expected to be financial advisers, but ensuring they have the training to navigate potentially challenging conversations whilst caring personally goes a long way to creating an environment that supports positive financial well- being.
What external support is out there? Payroll saving schemes – a quarter of UK adults have less than £100 in savings. Savings might not seem like an obvious place to start, but they’re key to building financial resilience. You can partner with Credit Unions to implement payroll savings schemes to support employees to
January 2023
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save at source before their salary hits their bank account. Bill priority tools – around 7.8 million people in the UK are struggling to keep up with bills. Signposting employees to ‘Bill Prioritiser’ tools at www.
moneyhelper.org.uk can help put bills in priority order, access advice and template letters to discuss and potentially negotiate with creditors. Debt advice – knowing where to turn for debt advice is often a challenge, but accessing the right help can have a transformative impact. If you know an employee is struggling with debt, the moneyhelper website’s debt advice locator tool can help them find face to face, online or telephone support in minutes. If you want even more insight on proactive financial well-being strategies, we recently spent “10 minutes with Paul Rhodes of the Money and Pensions Service”. There’s no one-size-fits all
approach which is why positive and proactive conversations with your people are key, and the support outlined above is the tip of the iceberg in terms of how you can support financial well- being. BMJ
1. Champion Health, 2022 - Financial wellbeing statistics: 2022
2 Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2022 – Stress in the workplace, 18 November
3 Office for National Statistics, 2022 – Workers with second jobs: UK: All: Thousands: SA
If you’d like to discuss anything covered in this article, or find out how BMF Intelligent Employment Plus can work for your business, contact
info@halborns.com, call us on 0115 718 0333 or visit
www.halborns.com
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