We assess the priority businesses give to providing benefits for their people and take the temperature of the pandemic's effect on our lives at work.
Do you believe that your employees would feel comfortable approaching their line managers if they were experiencing any financial difficulties?
Do you feel that the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the importance of, and need for, better understanding and support for financial wellbeing in the workplace?
What do you think your employees are most worried about due to the Covid-19 pandemic?
As an employer, what do you think are the adverse outcomes of employees suffering from poor financial wellbeing?
Which age group of your employees do you believe is the most affected by poor financial wellbeing?
Do you believe your company would benefit if employees were given an opportunity to learn more about financial matters such as mortgages, savings, insurance, and retirement planning?
Overall, flexible working, pensions, together with help for financial decision-making - in the form of an employee assistance programme - were the top three “most important company benefits” in our survey.
But companies employing more than 200 people made “pensions” their top answer for this section.
It’s clear that all three areas, when taken as a whole, play a significant part in financial wellbeing. Our research suggested that, while there’s general agreement that employers have a part to play, they are unsure of what steps to take to deliver, as the rest of the survey demonstrates.
In this case, just over half (52 per cent) of employees don’t feel comfortable asking their line manager for help if they have money worries. Given the deeply personal and often troubling nature of financial affairs, this isn’t particularly surprising: how much understanding and support can operational managers really offer?
The realistic solution - and the thread running through this survey’s results - is to work with a partner whose dayjob is specialising in this field.
It would seem so, as 86 per cent agreed this was the case, making it a visible priority. Doubtless it’s always been important but the trials of the pandemic may just have brought it into sharper focus.
Does it raise the possibility that companies will be retooling what they offer in this area? How will they go about it?
Our respondents ranked health, work, debt and wellbeing as the top four areas about which they were most concerned in the wake of covid. Interesting that wellbeing is seen as a separate area or question when it really encompasses the impact of the first three answers (and more).
We think this reinforces the need to articulate what financial wellbeing really means and hope this survey contributes to that debate.
Employers across the spectrum clearly identified the main consequence as stressed staff - 97.7 per cent - and the attendant impacts of reduced productivity, not turning up for work and affecting relationships with clients.
Thirty-five per cent said it affected all ages; 32 per cent selected said 18-30 year-olds suffered the most while 30 per cent said it was the 31-50 group.
Interestingly, three per cent said it was those older than 51: an age when finances are, for example, often squeezed by grown-up children at university and caring for elderly parents.
Does only three per cent represent a blind spot?
Eighty per cent said their company would benefit if employees could learn more about these financial services.
If just over half don’t want to talk to their manager about it (see question 2), feel that covid has made this more urgent (question 4) and that staff are stressed (question 5), how can this benefit be delivered in a way in which they feel comfortable?
We think this is where the thread that runs through this survey - the clear demand for informed, professional support but uncertainty about how to provide it - becomes clearly visible.
So, what needs to happen to create a future in which we all agree that wellbeing is critical and identify the obstacles on the way?