UK 
United States
Look at almost any survey examining what employees want from their employer, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find one that doesn’t rank support with financial wellbeing being high up the list.
The twin forces of real-term wage squeezes, combined with continued rises in the cost of living now mean a staggering half (52%) of employees now say they worry about money at least once a week [with nearly a fifth doing so daily]. It’s no surprise why. In what almost sounds like almost Victorian-era levels of penury, data finds more than 11 million working Britons have savings of less than £1,000, with a staggering two in five people of working adults having less than £100 in savings, and one in ten have no savings at all.
Jennifer Roberts
Head of Reward and Wellbeing
To do something about this, most workers are increasing turning to their employers to provide more support here. Willis Towers Watson finds the vast majority of organisations (76%) believe employees now want them to take a more active role in broader financial matters – and yet the inconvenient reality is, that many are not. Research by Nudge Global finds more than two-thirds (67%) of employees feel unsupported by their organisation when it comes to financial wellbeing.
One organisation, however, that has been determined ‘not’ to be one of these is Central Co-op – the community-based co-operative business for the central England region. With more than 500 trading premises, including the familiar Co-op supermarkets and funeral service providers, it’s been on an overhaul of its rewards and benefits provision – starting in 2022, but which most recently has included the addition of dedicated financial wellbeing elements.
