Mastering financial wellbeing: Five steps to build an effective financial wellbeing strategy

77% of employees with money worries report that it has affected their performance at work. The case for developing a financial wellbeing strategy is clear, but the process needs careful thought and attention. These five essential steps will guide you to create a comprehensive financial wellbeing program that supports your workforce to be healthier, happier, and more productive.

In this blog

1. 1. Conduct a needs assessment
2. 2. Identify key stakeholders
3. 3. Secure executive buy-in
4. 4. Define programme inclusions
5. 5. Assess and refine
6. Conclusion and key takeaways

1. Conduct a needs assessment

It’s vital to understand your workforce and analyse the current situation before making any decisions.

Analysing the current situation requires two sets of information; an objective understanding of the structure of the workforce, and insights into the support needed.

It’s a common assumption that poor financial wellbeing is more likely among those colleagues with lower incomes, or in more junior positions. The truth is that financial wellbeing is important at all levels of income, seniority and at all stages of life. Identifying and segmenting the workforce according to characteristics can help to ensure the strategy is flexible enough to meet the needs of all employees.

Grouping colleagues according to characteristics will make it easier to get an understanding of how financial issues affect them – this information can be used in the future to offer solutions to new starters or adjust solutions as individuals’ characteristics change and develop over time.

The most suitable characteristics used to group employees will differ from business to business, but the following options may offer food for thought:

Working patterns: E.g. shifts, part-time, full-time, flexible around childcare, study, caring or other commitments.

Income patterns:  E.g. salaried, fluctuating, contract, part-time, full-time.

Stages of life:  E.g. in education, graduate, new parent, new homeowner, preparing for retirement, etc.

Socio-demographic factors: E.g. single parents, carers, social housing tenants.

Once these groups have been determined, insights into colleague opinions can be gathered.

The ideal way to collect this information is a simple, short survey encouraging your colleagues to share some of their fears and worries. Anonymous responses are advised here, to inspire people to share openly.

Questions to consider include:

Do you worry about your finances? This could be a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question, or more detailed with options ranging from ‘frequently’ to ‘never’.

What do you worry about the most? You may choose to offer options that are within the scope of a company financial wellbeing strategy in order to manage expectations or leave this as an open text answer to enable deeper insights.

What support would you find useful? A multiple-choice format will work best here – offering a range of solutions within the scope of the strategy. Additionally, providing a short description of each solution will lead to better quality responses.

Timeline: Allow at least one month to capture, collate and analyse feedback from colleagues.

2. Identify key stakeholders

A balanced financial wellbeing strategy could cross several business units. Naturally, HR and finance will be involved, but don’t forget that an organisation-wide strategy needs additional assistance. Overall, a comprehensive financial wellbeing programme may require actions from:

IT: For rolling out and introducing technologies and apps. They may also need to prepare the resource and capacity to support the initial stages of educating employees about new technology – when it is likely they will be called upon for troubleshooting in the early adoption stages.

Internal communications: Announcing the strategy to the wider organisation and promoting HR’s guidance documents to understand the offering.

Learning & Development: Providing training for line managers to support them in encouraging direct reports to make use of the solutions available.

Colleague forums and groups/ Unions: If your company asks colleague-led groups, representatives or unions to feedback on new policies and processes, time will need to be allotted for this.

Employee Assistance Programs: If your company offers an assistant service to employees, it is important to provide them with details of the employee financial wellbeing products available to employees so they can advise employees appropriately.

Briefing each of these departments should form a key part of the project plan, once the strategy has been finalised.

Timeline: Allow suitable time to circulate the strategy and for it to be digested. Expect feedback and questions and keep in mind that this may result in changes to the strategy. Depending on workloads, this process could take as little as a few weeks to a couple of months.

3. Secure executive buy-in

Executive buy-in is essential for the smooth roll-out of an employee financial wellbeing strategy. Approval and support from executives will make it easier to bring other departments on board, while supplementary communication from c-suite level colleagues brings the strategy together and demonstrates a compassionate company culture from the top down.

Executives are busy, so make believing in the employee financial wellbeing strategy easy by providing these key highlights:

• How the strategy supports key business objectives such as increased productivity, reduced turnover, and improving workplace culture.
• Demonstrate why employee financial wellbeing is necessary for your people – the results from the survey in step one will be useful here.
• Address any foreseeable concerns up front and balance them with industry benchmarking data that illustrates how similar businesses are providing financial wellbeing support for employees.
• Showcase quick wins. These may be forecasts early in the process.

Timeline: With a well-constructed argument, you should be able to secure executive buy-in quite quickly. The longest delay will probably be in waiting for the next board meeting. Be prepared to answer any follow-up questions quickly so that you can maintain forward momentum with your strategy.

4. Define programme inclusions

Every individual has their own requirements, but the needs assessment completed at the start of this process will have identified many common factors. These insights will help define what your financial wellbeing package should contain.

Begin by defining the scope of the employee financial wellbeing strategy – what target groups have been identified through the initial needs assessment, and what needs is the programme going to meet?

Specify the aims and objectives of the financial wellbeing strategy – what will the measures of success look like when the programme is reviewed? How often will those reviews take place?

Once these answers are clear, analyse the available solutions and products to determine which will work best as part of the package offered. For clarity on this, check out our CIPD podcast episode ‘The wellbeing market is huge, how do you navigate it?’ with Chief Innovation Officer, Gethin Nadin and Mental Health, Wellbeing and Women’s Health Consultant Amy McKeown.

Consider how the strategy will strike the right balance between education to support financial literacy – such as making payslips easier to understand, vouchers and discounts that save employees money on everyday purchases, and products that support employees to manage their money – like payroll savings schemes and flexible pay.

Timeline: This process may take several months depending on the complexity of your employees’ financial wellbeing needs. Additionally, involving multiple stakeholders to assess package elements, providers and the technical feasibility of roll-out will lengthen the process further.

5. Assess and refine

An employee financial wellbeing strategy is not a one-and-done process. As the business, employees, and the economy itself continue to change, your financial wellbeing strategy will need to flex and adapt to meet new challenges.

Committing time to regular reviews will form a basis for assessing the effectiveness of the strategy. This could take the form of adding questions into existing employee satisfaction surveys and making time to separately review the responses.

In addition to regular reviews, there will be times when adjustments are needed on an ad-hoc basis – this could be the launch of a new product into the financial wellbeing market that better meets the objectives of the strategy, significant economic shifts, or organisational changes.

Any changes made to the employee financial wellbeing strategy must be effectively communicated to all stakeholders and employees quickly to avoid confusion and potential misunderstandings that could impact employee’s financial health negatively.

Ongoing improvements and two-way conversations about the effectiveness of the employee financial wellbeing strategy also serve as a consistent reminder to employees of the resources they have access to.

Timeline: Ongoing

Conclusion: Plan ahead to meet your team’s needs

Implementing a comprehensive employee financial wellbeing strategy is a multifaceted process that requires careful planning, collaboration, and continuous improvement. By conducting a thorough needs assessment, identifying key stakeholders, securing executive buy-in, defining programme inclusions, and regularly assessing and refining the strategy, you can create a supportive environment that addresses the diverse financial needs of your workforce.

Key takeaways

• Understanding the diverse financial needs of employees through detailed analysis and segmentation is crucial for developing a flexible and effective financial wellbeing strategy.
• Involving various departments such as HR, finance, IT, and internal communications ensures comprehensive support and smooth implementation of the strategy.
• Regular reviews and adaptability to economic shifts, new products, and organisational changes are vital for maintaining relevance and effectiveness.

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