22 March 2017 

Once a week insights, features and interviews for

HR professionals in hospitality

bites

“I’m Fine!” Are your staff as ok as they want you to believe?

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

HR & HOSPITALITY BITES

“ For many, the

£200,000 - £250,000

pension pot is a distant

dream; the level of

monthly savings

required to get to that

target is simply

unsustainable for

most. "

FINANCIAL EDUCATION

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“How are you?”. “I’m fine!”. How many of us offer that response when we’re asked

that question? Probably abut 95% with the other 5%

being so honest in their answer that they have the ‘asker’

recoil immediately and walk backwards at speed… Which is what we don’t want, so we tell a white lie. We say that everything’s ok. When it’s not.

In any case, everything that goes on in our world is too ‘big’ to encapsulate in any sort of

response to that question, so there’s never any point in asking it.

It’s a useless nicety. A formality. An opener.

You can probably split our lives into five areas; ‘us’ as a person, family, job, health, finances. If

you ask a member of your staff, “How’s your family?”, you’ll probably get a reasonably full and

frank response. If you ask someone ‘How’s your health?”, same; people will also tend to be

honest as far as is comfortable for them to do so.

If you ask someone ‘How are your finances?’, you’ll probably be looking at someone who is

awkward eyeballing the floor, asking it to swallow them. It’s too difficult to ask, to

uncomfortable to respond to, so it’s better just to sweep under the carpet really isn’t it. Or is it?

FINANCIAL EDUCATION

Recent research by Wealth Wizards revealed that a third

(31%) of respondents believe their employer takes a greater

interest in their physical health than their financial health. Its

survey of 2,000 individuals also found that 70% of

respondents feel that their physical and emotional wellbeing

is negatively impacted when they are in poor financial

health.

58% of

respondents

believe their

financial health is

just as important as

their physical

health, and a

further 10% believe

their financial

health is more

important than

their physical

health.

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EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT

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The research also found:

• 62% of respondents are worried about not having enough

money when they retire.

• 36% of respondents think their current financial situation

causes them more stress than their physical health, and 34%

believe this will continue into retirement.

• 58% of respondents believe their financial health is just as

important as their physical health, and a further 10% believe

their financial health is more important than their physical

health.

As employers, we’re pretty ‘up’ on how to support the physical wellbeing of our staff but could we

be doing more to protect our staff from financial stress, given that it has a significant impact on

their emotional wellbeing?

FINANCIAL EDUCATION

Giving your employees access to financial advice is just as important as giving them access to the

other benefits you provide. Not just for their benefit, it's for yours also.

More than a third of employees are distracted at work by financial concerns, according to research

by MetLife UK. Its UK Employee benefits trends study 2017, which surveyed 301 employees and

600 HR representatives and decision makers in the UK, also found that more than half (54%) of

employee respondents aged 18-30 years old are distracted by financial worries at work.

The link between financial stress and productivity is clear. It’s entirely likely that just over half of

your workforce are not giving you their best because of the financial stresses they carry every day

of their lives.

So, financial education is not just a ‘nice thing to offer’, it’s a ‘do it or it’ll cost you’ in terms of the

service your deliver to your customers and ultimately, how productive and profitable your

organisation is.

Employees who are able to give you their full focus are always going to be able to contribute more

than anxious, distracted employees, therefore it’s in your interests to help them tackle these areas

of potential stress to enable them to go about their jobs in a ‘lighter’, more engaged way.

EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT

CHANGING WORKFORCE

HR & HOSPITALITY BITES

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FINANCIAL EDUCATION

FINANCIAL EDUCATION

CHANGING WORKFORCE

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1. Social media at work

No more staring at a blank Outlook message

wondering how you can phrase ‘Can you please

just send me the info right now?’ in a slightly less

demanding way and proceeding to rattle off the

usual email niceties… We’re talking speed,

brevity and no more ‘Hope you had a lovely

weekend’… Quick and easy exchanges, saving

time, cutting down in email overload. Why

wouldn't you?

2. Social media at work

2. In an Instant

FINANCIAL EDUCATION

The research also found:

• More than half (53%) of employee respondents are interested in receiving financial

counselling.

• 42% of employee respondents are concerned about credit card debt.

• 57% of employee respondents are worried about the financial security of their family

if the main wage earner is unable to work as a result of a disability or serious illness.

• 57% of employee respondents are concerned about the financial security of their

family in the event of their premature death.

• 41% of employee respondents are worried about the affordability of their children’s

education.

• More than a third (39%) of employee respondents report that they are living from

payday to payday.

• 35% of employer respondents offer workplace wellness schemes.

• 87% of employee respondents agree that wellness programmes have a positive

impact on their health.

FINANCIAL EDUCATION

CHANGING WORKFORCE

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2. In an Instant

4. Spread the love

Financial education in the workplace – what’s the right approach?

1. Sensitivity

The younger generation might be more open to discussing their financial issues with

you but the older generations may not be. Finances, along with mental health

remain the two biggest taboos in the workplace so the way you approach it is critical

to achieving a successful outcome. Creating a culture of openness and

confidentiality is the first step to inspiring trust within your employees and ‘making it

ok’ for them to have these conversations with you. Nudge Global’s research found

that confidentiality is key in the provision of a financial education support

mechanism for 77% of employers.

2. Open conversations

Discussing options rather than a ‘you need to do this to fix it’ is the way forward. And

there will always be a range of options. Every problem has a solution and as an

employer, the solutions you take the time to research and present will hold more

weight to your employee than perhaps them going to an external provider.

FINANCIAL EDUCATION

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2. In an Instant

4. Spread the love

3. A holistic approach

There is nobody better placed to create an individual plan to support your employees’

financial wellbeing than you. You are the primary source of income, you offer a range

of benefits and can tap into the financial knowledge of your employee benefits

provider (in this case, that’ll be us!) so you’re in the unique position of being able to

build a solution for them, bringing together different elements of your employee

benefits programme such as workplace loan, pension advice, debt counseling,

childcare vouchers, retail and other discounts.

4. Being honest with your agenda

If you’re going to make your financial education programme work, you have to be

very clear about why you want to do that. You’re most likely going to be

recommending external providers, who somewhere down the line will make money,

which your employees will no doubt be aware, so your programme has to be

absolutely transparent to avoid a situation where employees feel they are being

opened up as a potential ‘market’ to a third party provider. Nobody wants to feel

vulnerable or indeed that they’re being ‘sold to’.

Financial education programmes

need a strategy and a reason, both of

which should be clearly

communicated.

The benefits of a financial education

programme are clear, but do you

really need one?

If you’re ticking more than just a few

boxes over the page, it’s likely that

there is an opportunity for you to

address a number of issues by

offering financial education as part

of your range of employee benefits.

FINANCIAL EDUCATION

CHANGING WORKFORCE

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4. Spread the love

And of course, having a financial education

programme shows you care, are interested

in the emotional and financial wellbeing of

your staff and will support them over a

period of time to deal with their financial

issues. That in turn inspires loyalty, a closer

bond with your employees and gives you a

‘better’ employee.

Remember, this is the stuff that keeps

people awake at night and has the biggest

impact on anyone’s ability to give the world

the best ‘them’ the following day.

Watch out next week for the second part

in our Financial Education series showing

you how to shape and build your financial

education programme.

The DAM Team

Your organisation is going through, or has gone through the auto-enrolment

process

You offer a defined-contribution benefit plan with a range of options.

You offer a share save or share incentive plan

There is a low take-up of your benefit options

Your staff focus more on salary rather than the full package of benefits you offer

You have poor engagement generally within your teams

Absentee-ism (especially stress related) is high

Does your organisation need a financial education programme?