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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
0
01
“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.
PAGE 10 HR & HOSPITALITY BITES
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
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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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3
HR & HOSPITALITY BITES
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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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HR & HOSPITALITY BITES
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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?