After two years of pandemic-focused operations, a significant challenge for many organisations will be holding on to their key people – and attracting new talent.
Much has been written of the current “war on talent”. There is no doubt the conversation has shifted, and talented employees are again researching their worth in the job market. What role can your benefits program play in driving the best possible outcomes for your business and its people?
Financial wellbeing may be a key point of differentiation. Financial wellbeing is a critical factor alongside your employees’ physical, social and emotional wellbeing. Willis Towers Watson research1 conducted before the pandemic showed three in 10 Australian employees report financial issues, with a third of Australian employees living pay cheque to pay cheque. These pressures are unlikely to have subsided during the uncertainty created by COVID-19.
Incorporating financial wellbeing into your overall strategy is one of the more challenging aspects for employers to tackle. Many don’t know where to start in providing their people with the right information and tools from reputable providers. There is also a distinction to be drawn between offering factual content and providing financial advice – a line which employers don’t want to cross.
And further, there are the internal naysayers who say financial wellbeing is not your organisation’s responsibility and lies with the individual employee. However, with companies increasingly focusing on ESG, this could be a major way in which your business can demonstrate its alignment with the social responsibility aspect – by showing you are equally as conscious about your internal ESG responsibilities as what you do externally.
Likewise, when we apply a DE&I lens, there is also the ability to highlight that benefit programs can have gaps in how they meet the needs of the full employee population. Closing these gaps will enhance employee wellbeing and experience and aid in both attraction and retention goals.
Ultimately, there is strong evidence that good financial wellbeing often leads to greater overall wellbeing. To be equipped to save for contingencies, future needs and cope with financial shocks provides your people the financial freedom to make choices that allow them to enjoy life. Employers generally provide many benefits in addition to base pay that can support financial wellbeing such as share plans, incentive plans and insurance; greater appreciation and understanding of which can support employee financial wellbeing.
Financial problems can affect job performance through both absenteeism and presenteeism – 43% of Australians living pay cheque to pay cheque reported money concerns keep them from doing their best at work, while 52% said it has strained family relations. Additionally, 44% had experienced serious personal injury or illness as a result.
Employers are looking for a way to not only differentiate but make the most of their total reward offering. Aligning total rewards to a financial wellbeing program can have broader benefits than increased financial literacy and reduced financial stress. It can also create a two-way appreciation of what the employer gives, and the employee gets.
Companies approach financial wellbeing in different ways depending on the internal drivers affecting employees. To help you achieve success, consider these factors when you are developing a financial wellbeing program business case.
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To build your business case, start by identifying the why. For some of our clients, this has been a direct result of feedback from employees requesting support with their finances.
If a key element of your external brand is to show you care, then aligning this internally is a valuable driver for your business case. It can show that by increasing employees’ financial capability and confidence, that you care about them during the time they are with you and beyond.
Perhaps your research suggests your benefits package is undervalued and you want to improve the understanding of your total rewards and how it can support financial goals. Benefit programs are often not given much airtime outside of compliance communication. Improving employees’ awareness of what you offer can be a good start in improving financial health and overall benefit program usage.
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Buy in from senior stakeholders from the beginning will help you get strong support for your business case – this may include asking them to role model behaviours or discuss their own financial wellbeing journey. A highly passionate project sponsor who believes in the business rationale can be an obvious ally.
Data collected from employee surveys or Workers’ Compensation claims can be used to support your narrative and aid your business case. This may include linking financial wellbeing to mental wellbeing, physical issues or absenteeism, so a business case for a budget can be made. If you don’t have employee research, consider a listening strategy to understand employees’ needs and how you may need to segment the education for different pockets of employees.
While your internal research is a powerful tool, external research and case studies can be useful, particularly to highlight how others have achieved success. This may be in terms of effective program design or simply to boost your business case by sharing success stories.
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While many financial wellbeing programs have been positioned globally, there’s always a need for local content and insights to make it relevant for employees.
Incorporate into your business case how the program will support employees locally. This may be by including educational topics such as local taxation and regulation. Or maybe as simple as directing employees to available tools that take into consideration their local needs.
If you have an online platform to drive education and maintain momentum, that can then be segmented to support your local market and drive a stronger business case for local investment.
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A lot of people need simple, high level prompts and general financial awareness to make a difference in how they approach their money. Simply being aware of your spending habits can help you recognise spending patterns that are keeping you from your goals.
Banks and financial institutions have better apps and tools to help people, and the move in Australia to open banking – making it easier to share banking data across banks – is likely to see this improve further. Adding these elements to your financial wellbeing program provides a strong starting point to establish a baseline from which to understand what employees are saying and to make future improvements that can be measured.
1 Willis Towers Watson, Global Benefits Attitudes Survey, 2019/2020, Australia.
