Outsourced facilities management organisation Mitie introduced workplace loans for its 53,000 UK employees in order to kickstart its financial wellbeing strategy.
Its workplace loan scheme, which was introduced in December 2017 and is provided by SalaryFinance, is aimed at helping Mitie to facilitate access to a practical financial benefit that enables its varied workforce, which includes cleaners, security guards and landscapers to name a few, to apply for a low interest loan. The organisation also launched the benefit to support its stance as a responsible employer.
Robyn Fisher, head of reward and performance at Mitie, says: “We understand that there [are] stresses in life, and as a responsible employer, we want to help people and make things easier where we can, so it’s a really good way of letting [employees] understand how to manage their money better and also obviously doing the responsible thing in terms of paying off debts and borrowing at affordable rates if they need to.”
Although the organisation has delivered financial education, alongside general pensions information, on an ad-hoc basis so far, the introduction of the loan scheme is the impetus for it to take further action around financial wellbeing. “[The scheme is] the real focal point of the financial wellbeing strategy and the starting point to what we want to do for our [employees],” adds Fisher.
As part of the financial wellbeing strategy, the organisation is exploring the addition of a savings product to the benefits package for 2018, and will look to review its financial education provision.
“It’s about being as inclusive as we can and supporting our [employees],” says Fisher.
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