What role can employers have in breaking financial taboos?

According to The DNA of financial wellbeing 2017, published by Neyber in May 2017, 33% of employees cite financial worries as their biggest concern, compared to health (29%) and work-life balance (28%). Yet only 3% of respondents would turn to their employer regarding money worries.

So how can employers break down the financial taboos that prevent employees seeking help, and what interventions can they use to mitigate their financial concerns?

Financial taboos at work

Financial topics are not standard water cooler conversations, says Christopher Mowatt, director of global stock and rewards services at Barclays. “There’s part of that employer-employee relationship [where] there’s a barrier in having that conversation whereby, for some reason, [the employee is] not performing in [their] role because [they have] got financial stress being caused by debt, lack of savings or fear of unemployment,” he says.

Discussing financial difficulties may be harder for employees in charge of teams, budgets or accounts, adds Heidi Allan, head of employee wellbeing at Neyber. “It puts a question mark, in their own heads, over whether they’re actually able to control the budget in the workplace. They’re not able to open up and talk to people about what’s going on in their personal lives for fear of being looked on negatively in their professional lives,” she says.

For careers such as the police force, it is important that employees do not get into debt because it could leave them open to blackmail, Allan adds. This could make these individuals reluctant to discuss financial problems.

Why should employers tackle financial taboos?

Financial wellbeing: the last taboo in the workplace?, published by Barclays in April 2014, found that for every £1 million a UK employer spent on staff salaries, £40,000 could be attributed to lost productivity caused by financial stress.

Focusing on financial wellbeing can influence employees’ mental health, ability to avoid mistakes, stress management and absenteeism. Damian Stancombe, head of workplace wealth and health at Barnett Waddingham, says: “Financial wellbeing does not sit in a silo; it is directly linked to wider health. Dealing with it will solve some of those attitudes around absenteeism, presenteeism and, potentially, turnover.”

Jason Butler, head of financial wellbeing at Salary Finance, agrees: “I don’t think it’s viable anymore for employers to abdicate responsibility for at least creating the right culture and environment in which people can talk about money, discuss being good with money and [learn] good habits, behaviours and mindsets. It’s about helping [employees] be in control.”

Benefits that break down taboos

Although an employee assistance programme (EAP) or counselling service, delivered confidentially, can act as a starting point for conversations that break down financial taboos, Butler recommends the use of money coaching as a lower-cost alternative. “It’s about changing [employees’] own habits, the way [they] think about [money], removing obstacles,” Butler explains.

Employers could also facilitate access to a holistic wealth management portal, allowing employees to privately input their specific data and have an overview of their total financial situation, says Stancombe. A platform such as this could then share anonymised data with the employer, informing its financial wellbeing approach.

“The tools that [employers] give employees have to be useful,” Stancombe notes. These tools might include a debt consolidation service or payroll loan benefit, a financial buddies mentoring programme, an employer-paid social fund to help employees attend organisational social events, or financial wellbeing champions.

Financial education

These benefits combat existing financial stressors, but Mowatt adds: “We’ve got to roll it back and try and prevent people getting into that position in the first place.”

Financial education covering topics such as how to budget for specific life events, how mortgages work and debt management, needs to engage and entertain employees.

Online content, such as articles and videos, can enable employees to comfortably investigate financial topics outside work. Podcasts can also be useful, because they are more discreet. “It’s providing good quality, trusted content in a range of mediums that’s easily accessible to everybody when and where they need it,” explains Allan.

Financial education can also encourage employees to save once they are out of difficulty. This can include education around workplace pensions, creating a savings buffer and providing information around employee share schemes. “Educate to prevent, but also explain where people are and what they need to do to take it forward,” Mowatt recommends.

Communications

Senior leadership support is important to encourage take-up of financial interventions, notes Mowatt: “If they’re seen to be using it and saying ‘this is a good thing’, then it trickles down and people will use it and hopefully benefit from it.”

Employers should also provide a range of content and delivery methods to reach employees. For example, an employer might provide jargon-free case studies, showcasing how an employee has managed their own difficulties, and demonstrating the support available. “Word them positively so that there isn’t a negative connotation if somebody utilises something,” Allan says.

Those employers wanting to break down financial taboos at work can influence not only productivity and engagement, but also wellbeing and stress levels. “It’s trying to humanise finance. The more touchpoints [employers] can give to an employee, the more chances they’ve got of finding a way that works for them to listen and learn,” concludes Mowatt.