Last month, a study from the Royal Society of Arts found that 70% of the UK’s working population are “chronically’ broke.
According to the survey, 40% of respondents said their finances were permanently precarious with another 30% saying they were not managing to get by.
As a result, Brhmie Balaram, the Author of the report, told The Guardian that “economic insecurity now stretches throughout our labour market.”
With the RSA making clear that workers are now worse off, coupled with this week’s ONS report which found unemployment had grown at a near-fiveyear high, employers have been warned to take better care of their employee’s finances.
Speaking exclusively with HR Grapevine, Monica Kalia, Co-Founder of Neyber, explained that financial wellbeing incentives bring a boost for both employers and staff when implemented into benefits strategies.
She said: "Companies have started to understand that responsibility for employees' financial wellbeing doesn’t just begin and end with the pay cheque.
“Furthermore, financial wellbeing is now increasingly viewed as an integral part of a wellbeing and engagement strategy - alongside more established aspects of wellbeing such as mental and physical wellbeing.”
Kalia continued that companies that don’t take their employees financial wellbeing seriously will not only see employees mental and physical wellbeing suffer, they will also see the firm’s bottom line suffer.
“Failure to embrace financial wellbeing can have negative aspects in the form of employees being impacted by financial worries,” she added, “leading to employees being distracted at work and impacting performance.”
And, with almost three in 10 workers concerned about their level of debt, coupled with Neyber’s findings that 48% of workers are borrowing money to meet their basic financial needs, it’s not surprising that over half of employers say that the effect of poor finances is impacting work.
However, there is another way. Anglian Water are one such firm who’ve implemented a financial wellbeing scheme – in the form of a hardship loan – to ensure stressed employees feel supported.
Neyber’s Co-Founder backs the positive effect of such schemes. “Early adopters - companies that have been leading the charge around financial wellbeing such as Anglian Water - have evidenced reduced presenteeism and employees being more supported around their finances,” she concluded.
To find out more about Neyber, please visit the website: www.neyber.co.uk
Richard