The value of knowing the Financial Wellbeing Score of your people

Since Covid-19 and the cost -of-living crisis, the wellbeing of employees has risen on management and executive board agendas, there’s been greater focus on improving employee benefits and uptake of mental health first aider training.

Our research shows that 83% of organisations surveyed have mental health first aiders.

This is excellent news and definitely heading in the right direction.

Yet something is missing

There is a banana skin, something that could be holding back the success of organisations and improvements in their people’s mental health and sense of workplace wellbeing.

92% of organisations who responded to our poll stated they did not know the Financial Wellbeing Score of their people.

12% had not heard of it.

Here’s the problem

Not knowing the Financial Wellbeing Score of your people is likely to be costing the organisation, financially, strategically and reputationally.

What is the Financial Wellbeing Score

It is a measure of a person’s individual financial wellbeing at any moment in time, as it considers a person’s current financial situation, aspirations, attitude, behaviour, thoughts and feelings towards money.

The Financial Wellbeing Score identifies people who are experiencing:

• Financial emergency or crisis

• Struggling or just about getting by (Surviving)

• Comfortable

Employees with money worries and debt are three times more likely to suffer with mental ill health compared to those who don’t have debt and or money worries (Money and Mental Health Policy Institute).

This has a direct impact on, absenteeism, presenteeism and productivity, which costs organisations £120 billion a year.

In 2023 the Chartered Institute For Personnel Development reported the following impacts:

Attendance

10% of full-time and part-time employees have missed days at work because of financial worries, with an average of 4.9 worker days lost each year.

Productivity

On average, employees spend 3.5 working days a year managing their money(whilst at work)

Mental health

Some 34% of employees say that financial stress/money worries in the past year have had a severe or major impact on their mental health.

Retention

Over three-quarters of employees (76%) state they would be attracted to another company that they perceive cares more about their financial wellbeing.

Couple those impacts with time line managers and HR professionals spend on performance management issues, staff complaints and potentially, a rise in spurious grievances, the impact of poor financial wellbeing can have far reaching consequences on employers.

By knowing which category your people are in, directs focus to where it is most needed. It informs the organisation’s wellbeing policy, strategy and wellbeing programme, saving precious time, resources and money.

How the Financial Wellbeing Score benefits organisations

• Identify the proportion of their people in crisis, surviving or comfortable

• Recognise the scale of emergency, crisis and surviving issues

• It provides guidance, recommendations, tools and resources to help staff improve their financial wellbeing scores regardless of whichever category they are in

  
  

For staff in emergency or crisis, it engages and empowers people to get the immediate support they need to avoid their situation from getting worse, which reduces impacts on employers

• It reveals underlying or hidden issues which could be affecting productivity, performance and importantly the wellbeing of their people

• It identifies areas that require immediate attention and allows for prioritisation of issues to maximise resources and areas of greatest impact

• Further demonstrates a commitment to the wellbeing of their people, which improves loyalty, retention and operational success

  
  

To find out more about how measuring the Financial Wellbeing Score can help, click on here, update your best contact e-mail or number and we’ll get right back to you.