How to have conversations with your employees about financial wellbeing

1. Let’s talk about Financial Wellbeing How to have conversations with your employees about financial wellbeing Bippit

2. Table of Contents 3 What is Financial Wellbeing? 4 What do you know about your workforce? 7 How to break the money taboo 10 Discussing Financial Wellbeing with your employees 11 Actionable Next Steps

3. SUMMARY 94% Bippit is here to help you at every stage of your company’s Financial Wellbeing Strategy. This guide will lead you through the conversations you may want to have with your employees to engage them with financial wellness in your company. There’s no need for your employees to suffer from money-related stress and problems in silence. You can support them to increase their Financial Wellbeing and encourage a more engaged and productive workforce. Following our guide you’ll understand what types of conversations need to be had, who you should be having them with, and why they’re so important. HAVE MONEY WORRIES 2

4. WHAT IS FINANCIAL WELLBEING? 01 What is Financial Wellbeing? Financial Wellbeing is about having the confidence and clarity to manage your finances effectively. You’ll feel in control of your budget, be able to accurately analyse your spending, and understand how to grow your wealth. By focusing on delivering a financial wellbeing solution, you can help to build a company culture that promotes openness, collaboration, and confidence in discussing personal finances, which will help reduce the effects of financial stress. HOW IT IMPACTS EMPLOYEES Poor financial wellbeing is too costly an issue to ignore. 94% of employees admit that they have money worries and 74% say that these worries affect them at work, leading to 3.6 lost hours every week per employee. Implementing a well thought out financial wellbeing solution can make a real difference to your workplace, And because it’s linked to both mental and physical health strategies, a financial wellbeing solution can support your employees in a holistic way. Employees who are suffering from money-related stress and anxiety are costing UK businesses up to £70 billion per year in lost productivity as they’re distracted by their financial worries. 3 3

5. WORKFORCE 02 What do you know about your workforce? Before you implement a new Financial Wellbeing strategy in your company it’s a good idea to start thinking about how your employees respond to current work-benefits and what the culture is when it comes to introducing new, innovative programs. There’s a high chance your employees are suffering in silence when it comes to their money: households in the UK have no savings have no additional pension savings of adults in the UK are living with debt CONVERSATIONS TO HAVE WITH YOUR EMPLOYEES It’s time to think about what you’re hearing from your team. To get an understanding of what your financial wellbeing strategy needs to include, you should consider the following: 4

6. WORKFORCE Look critically at your current workplace benefits to see what the employee uptake is. What benefits are currently being used the most - and on the flip-side, which are underperforming? Is there a particular financial benefit, like a cycle to work loan scheme, that constantly has a good uptake? Use your employee financial wellbeing survey to understand why this may be, and what type of product or service would your employees appreciate. An employee survey will assess and measure how engaged and motivated your employees are at work. It’ll give you valuable insight into attitudes about their work and the office culture. Do they feel invested in the company’s success? Do they believe in the company mission? Employee engagement is an important metric to track as it’s linked to the overall success of the company. Those with highly engaged teams are more productive - resulting in a more profitable business. Do you know how many of your employees are suffering from money-related stress? Ask your employees to take an anonymous financial wellbeing survey to highlight their money-related issues, problems, and stresses. You’ll also be able to learn what aspects concern your employees the most - be it debt, lack of savings, or low financial literacy. It’s an opportunity to see what types of financial assistance or company benefit your employees will be most receptive to. If this is something that you need support with, the Bippit team can help. What’s your current sick leave rate? On average, employees take 6.9 days of sick leave per year. If you are seeing a high rate of employees off sick regularly or who are off long-term, it’s essential you understand why and how ill-health may be impacting their finances. We know that poor financial management is the number one cause of stress in the UK. So it’s safe to assume that money is a contributing factor for some of your employees who have taken time off work because of stress. 8 5

7. WORKFORCE What’s your employee pension opt-out rate? Do people understand the workplace pension scheme? Are they fully aware of your contribution to it? It’s interesting to see how many of your employees are choosing to leave your offered pension plan. You might find that younger, less experienced staff on a lower income are opting out more often than those in middle-management and above. Now it’s time to go over previous exit interviews to look for signs of discontent within your business. Do you notice any recurring issues or reasons that people give for leaving? Is it purely down to getting more money elsewhere, or maybe career progression? Where are your ex-employees moving on to? It could be a good idea to compare their future company’s wellness policies vs your own offering. Companies that are rated highly for their compensation and benefits can see a 56% lower rate of attrition. Also, 80% of employees would keep a job with good benefits rather than take one that offered more pay, but no benefits. And, 46% of Millennials say that their loyalty to their employer is influenced by how much the company cares about their financial wellbeing in particular. 6 6

8. BREAK THE MONEY TABOO 03 How to break the money taboo Talking about money is still a major taboo in, and outside of, the workplace. Employees may feel that they are already confident with managing their money, however we know that many of them are in fact not making the best decisions, causing them to accumulate debts or be ill equipped to deal with unexpected costs or future savings plans. It often comes down to people not having enough financial literacy - which is something that can be addressed. We think that it’s time to break down the barriers and help more people open up about money and finances, so that we can change workplace cultures for the better, and become more supportive and understanding; after all, a problem shared is a problem halved. HOW TO CHANGE YOUR WORKPLACE CULTURE Only 14% of UK employees are comfortable talking openly about money. Developing a more harmonious workplace culture where employer/employee relations are in sync and perfectly aligned is a challenge, but one you should always aim to achieve. A culture where your employees trust that you have their best interests in mind, and where they feel more open to discuss any topics, including money, is the ideal. 7 7

9. SPEAK WITH SENIOR LEADERS BREAK THE MONEY TABOO Now that you know what you want to achieve with your financial wellness strategy (especially if you’ve collected the results from discovery sessions), you can start to get key-people onside. Talk with the senior leaders in your organisation to bring them up to speed on all the key benefits of a robust, easy to implement, and cost effective financial wellness solution. Mention the drop in productivity and its impact on lost revenue, cover the fact that employees do really want financial help from their employers, and explain that you’ll retain and attract the best staff members with a better financial benefit programme. CREATE FINANCIAL WELLBEING CHAMPIONS Financial wellbeing champions are people who will drive the wellbeing strategy within your company. They work alongside you to embed the financial wellbeing solutions with your employees, helping them understand what financial wellbeing is, and how they can take full advantage of your company's offerings. By creating a financial wellbeing champion within your company, you’re helping to mitigate the risks of poor mental health and the associated stress because they’ll be able to react quickly to any noticeable issues with your workforce. 8

10. BREAK THE MONEY TABOO Your financial wellbeing champion can also work on-the-ground to break down the social taboo that often comes with talking about money. They’ll be trusted and energetic team members who can talk openly with your employees about ways in which they can use your organisation’s financial wellbeing benefits to manage their money. Creating a culture of openness in your company can lead to employees that feel supported and part of a community where they’re valued. SHARE STORIES Encourage your employees to share their finance stories. People are more engaged when they’re personally involved in creating a new culture or executing a strategy. Facilitate a method that’s easy to use - perhaps an anonymous blog or email newsletter that can be shared with the wider organisation quickly. Bippit can even help you create a channel on Slack (or other communication app) that allows your employees to share advice, tips and updates about various financial matters. 9

11. DISCUSSING FINANCIAL WELLBEING 04 Discussing Financial Wellbeing with your employees When it comes to discussing financial wellbeing with your employees, various techniques can help get the message across that you’re there to support them. PARTNER UP Be sure to use all the resources that are available to you. Speak with your financial wellbeing champions to gauge the conversations that your employees are having so you can start to plan what guidance they need. Once you know what sort of support your team requires, it's simply a case of delivering the right financial wellbeing service to meet them. Try to get your employees involved, and ask them to suggest workshops they’d like to attend or what they’d like to learn. Inviting financial wellbeing experts into your company to hold talks, Lunch & Learn’s, webinars, meet-up’s, and events is a great way to approach this, and will help your employees understand the potential of a new benefit clearly. 10

12. NEXT STEPS 05 Actionable Next Steps There’s a lot of information that needs to be covered so let’s put all these points into actionable steps to make implementing a financial wellbeing strategy clear and simple. EMPLOYEE NEEDS AND INTEREST For a financial wellbeing strategy to be effective you need it to deliver good engagement. A helpful way to achieve this is to create a framework that covers the most important aspects. You might want to consider: Engage - ask your team about what they want help with. ● Understand - define their needs, and be clear on the underlying issues. ● Evaluate - find the best financial wellbeing solution for your company. ● Execute - rollout in a simple way with clear ongoing communication with your employees. ● Using this framework allows you to focus on the key areas that have the biggest impact on your employees and company. 11

13. NEXT STEPS HOW TO FIND THE RIGHT FINANCIAL WELLBEING PROVIDER Locating inclusive tools and services for your financial wellbeing strategy is essential. You’re looking for providers that are experts in their field. We know just how important it is to make sure that the solutions you present to your employees are 100% impartial, reliable, and relatable. Any provider you choose needs to be secure, confidential, easy to use, and easy to implement. Also consider what they offer your employees: will the solution actually help? Do they offer: One-to-one expert guidance? Unique learning resources? Access to a wide range of effective tools and calculators to understand their situation better? Can you measure results and usage? ● ● ● ● Good Financial Wellbeing strategies and solutions can have a meaningful and lasting effect on all your employees’ lives. They help to reduce the impact of financial stress - alleviating some pressure on their mental health in the process. Supporting your employees to become more confident with their finances will create a more stable, effective and productive workforce for your company. You’ll have less absenteeism or presenteeism (which is costing businesses upwards of £70 billion per year), and benefit from a workforce who love their job and company culture. 12

14. ABOUT BIPPIT best financial care available employees feel Email us on more empowered Book a call with us personalised with dedicated support Or visit our Website save your business money 13