In November last year, following a successful pilot scheme, Capita rolled out Level, a financial wellbeing and savings platform, to its 37,000 UK employees, most of whom are still working remotely.
The platform, which can be accessed via desktop or mobile, offers a range of financial features, including budgeting tools powered by open banking, salary-linked savings, early wage access and financial education tools, as well as advice from the Money and Pensions Service.
Chief people officer Will Serle says: “These tools allow employees to easily keep track of their disposable income throughout the month, access instant earned-salary advances and automatically save part of their monthly wage into the best savings accounts typically reserved for those with large sums of money.”
A key focus of the new initiative is to help staff achieve their own personal finance goals, from saving towards their first house deposit or buying a new car, to using the earned-salary advances option to help cover unexpected expenses, while avoiding overdrafts and other forms of high-cost credit.
With the rapid increase in the use of digital banking during the pandemic, and the fact that people are increasingly looking to technology to improve their management of personal finances, Serle sees the role of technology as crucial to improving the financial health of employees.
He says: “We are working closely with the behavioural insights team to test and evaluate the best ways to encourage people to build up a savings buffer for the future, and to develop the best technology to help them do this. Businesses need to take a more proactive role in improving the nation’s financial health, and with tools such as Level, this is becoming far more possible.”