COVID-19 | Financial Wellbeing: Why It Matters Now

The impact of Covid-19 has had an undeniably profound effect on the wellbeing of the UK population with one in five adults experiencing depressive symptoms in early 2021, more than double that seen before the pandemic¹.

Whilst most employers may have already implemented a traditional mental and physical wellbeing strategy, a recent CIPD survey found that only half of employers have an effective financial wellbeing strategy in place². With the uncertainty that the pandemic has brought, HR teams need to prioritise creating their own financial wellbeing framework for the health of their workforce.

Exposing new vulnerabilities within the workforce

Encouraging presenteeism and preventing long-term sickness brought on by financial stressors is a fundamental reason for HR teams to implement a financial wellbeing strategy, with absenteeism and workplace illness caused by financial stress costing businesses approximately 4% of payroll costs per year³. Whether staff have concerns relating to debt, mortgage repayments or financially supporting dependants, it is understandably difficult to leave these worries at home during the working day. With recent research finding 10.1 million people in the UK showing signs of financial difficulty and 2.4 million experiencing problem debt since the Covid-19 pandemic began⁴, financial struggles are a common issue affecting employees across the UK, exposing new vulnerabilities within the workforce.