A third (33%) of organisations have the appetite to pay for financial advice for their employees in 2018, according to corporate advisory firm Chase de Vere and research organisation Lightbulb.
Their research, which involved phone calls with 10,000 UK employers and in-depth interviews with 300 senior HR decision makers from organisations ranging from 30 to 38,000 employees, found that this appetite to pay for financial advice for staff has in fact decreased from 42% of respondents in 2017.
Sean McSweeney (pictured), corporate advice manager at Chase de Vere, said: “Relatively few employers are willing to spend money to help facilitate the provision of financial advice, even though they understand that their employees would benefit from it. This is disappointing because employers are well-placed to help their employees. This could also be a false economy for employers.”
The majority (83%) of respondents in 2018 believe that financial advice is something their employees would value and benefit from, which is on a par with the 85% of employers who believed this in 2017. Furthermore, 56% plan to do more to help their employees make more informed choices regarding their retirement, compared with 58% who considered this in 2017.
“The overwhelming majority of employers are aware that their employees would benefit from financial advice,” added McSweeney. “This is a very good starting point and it is positive that more than half of employers are planning to do more to help their employees to make informed decisions.”
However, only 27% of respondents anticipate including a cost for financial advice for employees in their 2018-2019 budget, which is a 9% decrease from the 36% of employers who factored these costs in for 2017.
McSweeney said: “Those employers who don’t help may, over time, be faced with an ageing workforce that cannot afford to retire and as a result, suffer from lower productivity, succession planning issues and losing younger talent to competitors that provide more opportunity for advancement.”