Financial worries can be a primary cause of stress for many employees. Money worries don’t just affect an individual’s financial health, their physical and mental well-being can also be negatively impacted.
Subsequently, employees worrying about their finances can have a negative effect on the businesses they work for. Things like lower productivity, higher absenteeism and higher staff costs can hurt business performance and mean higher staff turnover.
With this in mind, it’s important for employers to think about how they can help keep their employees’ minds at rest when it comes to their finances.
THERE ARE A NUMBER OF WAYS YOU AS AN EMPLOYER CAN HELP, SUCH AS:
- Enrolling your employees for a workplace pension and explaining it to them thoroughly
- Inviting a financial expert into the workplace to talk about specific topics such as mortgages, pensions and insurance
- Ease the burden of commuting costs for your employees – help out with travel season tickets or provide a bike to work scheme
- Find out if local businesses, like gyms and restaurants, offer employee discount schemes
- Look for ways to help employees manage work-related expenses, like providing a corporate credit card
- Health insurance through the workplace can give your employees additional medical benefits for them and their loved ones
- Provide food at work once or twice a week to help with lunch costs
- Offer to help with nursery costs for those with children who may be struggling
Giving your employees the advice and support they need to feel safe and secure about their finances is not only the right thing to do, but it can also help to deliver better performance at work by taking away the stress of worrying about money.
One important thing to remember is that each individual has their own concerns so try not to take a blanket approach to helping people if you can. Putting a few schemes in place and providing options will help more people to feel catered and cared for.