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Employee financial wellbeing and mental health - for FTAdviser wellbeing hub

Journalist: Samantha Downes, Freelance and Pumpkin Pensions

ended 26. October 2023

Hi - I'm looking for financial adviser comment on the following - it's for FTAdviser's wellbeing hub - here https://www.ftadviser.com/work-and-wellbeing/

So tips on how employers can help with their employees ‘financial mental wellbeing’

This is the hook: The number of employees voicing wellbeing concerns is on the rise, but a significant number of organisations and managers are ill-prepared to address them, according to new research from Mintago.

  • 87% of managers have been approached by an employee in the past 12 months to discuss concerns relating to their wellbeing
  • Mental health (48%), job satisfaction (43%) and financial wellbeing (40%) the most common issues raised
  • Just 33% say their organisation has a clear process in place for handling concerns
  • 47% of managers uncomfortable discussing financial wellbeing issues

Mintago.surveyed 503 senior managers within UK-based organisations (public and private sector). This revealed that an overwhelming majority (87%) have been approached by an employee in the past 12 months to discuss concerns relating to their wellbeing.

Following mental health (48%) and job satisfaction (43%), financial wellbeing (40%) emerged as the third most prevalent concern that employees spoke to their managers about.

 

5 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Michelle Lawson
Director at Lawson Financial
I find these stories interesting as it seems an indictment of our times that people seek so much assistance nowadays without trying to resolve issues and handle these personally. Currently, we are all largely in the same boat. I am self employed and do not have the ability to ask for this! With risk of sounding old, it wasn't like this years ago! If you had money concerns you would either cut back or find another role if your employer can't/won't give a payrise. Mental Health is very important as I have significant personal experiences of this however, it is about talking to the right people and also taking an element of personal responsibility. Employers just don't have a never-ending pocket to fund these things as employees must understand that, to get proper appropriate support, this comes at a cost. The cost of running a business has massively increased over the years. Ultimately happy staff will result in them staying but ultimately employers can't and shouldn't fix everything.
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Simon Bridgland
Director at Charwin Private Clients
Unless the employer has a large pot of cash available to dole out to employees or an in-house adviser, the best thing they can do is signpost to the various places for help and advice, places such as but certainly not limited to;
https://nationaldebtline.org/
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/
https://www.stepchange.org
https://maps.org.uk/en
There are of course many places people can go for help, they may prefer to speak with an adviser who specialises in financial wellbeing, an increasing number of advisers are offering these services but they will usually come at a cost.
Employees should also speak to the lenders themselves. They may be able to work out a plan to help. Many mortgage lenders have recently signed up to the Mortgage Charter, which could help ease pressure.
Employers should link up with financial advisory services, who can offer help for free. Many would be willing to help those in need on the basis that they can also help staff in the better times.
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Ross Boyd
CEO at Dashly.com
Worrying about money is a huge cause of stress for many at the best of times. Add in the cost-of-living crisis and rising interest rates and this stress is amplified. Employers have a duty of care to look after every element of an employee’s wellbeing - that includes financial, and that includes mortgages.

We recently partnered with Benefex, and Prudell Financial Advisers, to add mortgage advice to the wellbeing support they provide. It simply makes good sense in these times that employees would provide independent support and guidance to help employees navigate the most significant purchase decision they will make.

With so much pressure currently on personal finances, we are seeing increased interest from employers who want to do everything they can to help their employees save money and ease the stress. Adding mortgage advice to the list of wellbeing services demonstrates that employers are aware of these pressures and want to do what they can to help make life easier.
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Scott Taylor-Barr
Principal Adviser at Barnsdale Financial Management
I see part of this as a good news story, as a rise in the number of people being comfortable speaking out about their concerns to their employers means that the environment is seen as supportive and safe - I have no doubt that people were just as concerned about these same issues previously, but just didn't feel they could share their concerns within their organizations. Seeing that many managers are ill-equipped to deal with these concerns when raised by employees is not surprising, as many managers are promoted or recruited and just then left to get on with the task at hand, very rarely do businesses give any form of people-management skills before taking on the role. This is a shame for all concerned; the employee feels unsupported, the manager feels ill-prepared, and the business suffers because of it. Overall, we are better at this now than previously and it's becoming more of a prominent issue with many companies getting better at supporting their people.

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Austyn Johnson
Founder at Mortgages For Actors
I can only think of one thing that used to affect so many of my co-workers in a previous job - Stop Managers mico-managing and setting unrealistic targets.