How to unlock the power of financial employee benefits
Everyone knows that when you are stressed you cannot work at your best.
A recent study suggests that 4.9 million workers have seen productivity fall over the last two years due to financial concerns, with 15% admitting that they are often distracted by money worries at work. This trend seems to coincide with the Cost of Living Crisis and Energy Crisis in the UK and seems only set to continue for the immediate future.
Many businesses are turning to financial employee benefits to support their teams during this time.
Financial employee benefits work to improve productivity by helping employees feel more in control of their finances, thereby improving their wellbeing and reducing stress caused by money worries. This helps them be as engaged and productive at work as possible, which in turn helps your company get the most from their contributions.
But if your company invests in these products, how can you unlock the power of financial employee benefits and ensure that your team and company feel the benefit? Afterall, simply buying the products will not help, you need buy-in from your employees. Here are some tips to help you get the most out of these valuable employee benefits. The last one seems simple, but is deceptively tricky!
Identify your goals
Firstly, you need to consider the bigger picture.
What, specifically, are you aiming to achieve by providing your employees with financial benefits? Are you aiming to reduce time off? Or are you wanting them to be more productive? Are you looking to build a company culture that invests in the long-term wellbeing of its employees? Or do you have another aim?
Clarify and note your main goals. This will inform the type of benefits that you provide.
Understand the problem
The next step is to ensure that you really understand the underlying causes behind the stress your team is struggling with. Is it that they have lots of debt and do not know how to manage it? Or is it that they need access to loans to get out of difficult situations? Is it that they just have a poor grasp of the basics - such as budgeting, saving for retirement and good credit?
A word of warning here - it goes without saying that financial concerns are a very private matter, and all sensitivity should be applied when trying to unpick the causes of financial stress in the workplace. No one is going to reveal the inner workings of their personal finances to their employer, but there are ways of tackling this sensitively and getting a little bit of insight that can help you make an informed decision.
A good approach is to present your team with an online questionnaire to fill in. Phrasing questions carefully can help you uncover a lot without crossing any lines. Some examples are:
- Tick all those topics that you would like to learn more about: budgeting, saving, credit options, how to save for retirement
- On a scale of one to five (with one being the least and five being the most), how much would you appreciate access to a debt advice helpline?
- If you needed access to a loan in the future, would you be willing to pay it back through your salary? Yes/No
Questions like those above can help you gauge whether there are major gaps in your team’s knowledge about finances, how much they may require help with debt and whether they would appreciate access to a loan. You can devise additional questions to help you determine the other kinds of financial services that your employees might appreciate.
Talk to us
If you would like to find out more about our solutions, get in touch.
Understand Your Benefits
Once you understand your aims and have uncovered some of the struggles that your team face, it is time to determine the best financial benefit solutions for your employees.
There is, of course, plenty of information out there. If you are interested in finding out more about our financial wellbeing benefits, click here.
But to ensure that you get the best possible benefit solution, it can be much more time effective to speak to one of our team. Our highly skilled and knowledgeable Benefits Team work with you to determine which services will help you achieve your objectives in the most cost-effective way.
They understand the specifics of each benefit, such as the eligibility requirements, enrollment deadlines, and any contribution limits. Their expertise will help you make informed decisions about how to utilise them best and save you a lot of time and money.
Interested? Talk to us
Embrace online access
Although the financial benefits that you provide your team should include a variety of services, we highly recommend that you remove as many barriers as possible and embrace the accessibility of online platforms. Employees are often unlikely to look for help during work hours due to the sensitive nature of this issue, and so ensuring they have remote access round the clock is a must if you want your financial benefits to be effective.
Many of our financial benefits are online, meaning your team can get help when they need it. Here are some examples:
Financial Wellbeing Education
Our Financial Wellbeing Education platform is an online platform that gives your employees access to a variety of training resources that helps them develop their financial management skills.
Interested? Find out more
Financial Wellbeing Debt Advice
The Personal Debt Advice service offers employees expert honest and tailored advice to help them to manage their debts, whatever their situation. The service includes an online tool that provides immediate recommendations based on individual circumstances.
Interested? Find out more
Communicate benefits, not features
Finally, our last top tip. It might appear to be a simple one, but in our experience, it is one of the most difficult to get right in any organisation. You may understand the potential positive impact of all the financial benefits you have selected for your team, but they probably will not. Our advice is rather than just explaining the features of their financial benefits, explain the impact it will have. This might sound like semantics, but the difference is quite significant.
A feature of a financial benefit might be:
“ This platform provides you will information about how to budget and save”
But explaining the benefit of this same solution might be:
“This platform provides you will information about how to budget and save to help you save for things you really want, such as a great holiday.”
Everyone is time-poor, and employees are far more likely to investigate and engage with something if they understand what the real-life benefit might be.
Identify the problem, find a solution
Financial employee benefits can be a powerful tool to help employees improve their financial wellbeing, reduce stress and be more productive in work. If you understand the underlying causes of financial stress amongst your team and then use the expertise of an employee benefits company to find a solution, you can be far more confident you will get the result you need.
Once you have your solution, you need to make sure that access is easy and convenient and explain the benefits of the financial services effectively. Following these tips will ensure that you get the best buy-in that you possibly can. This will significantly improve the impact of these services, ensuring your team are as engaged and productive as possible.
