Why financial wellbeing must evolve

Nurturing the wellbeing of employees and building a meaningful employee experience is central to sustaining a resilient, high-performing workforce. 

Most workplaces have programs in place to foster physical and mental wellness, but with financial stressors impacting employees of every age group within the workforce, it is critical to go beyond this by integrating financial wellbeing into the broader wellness agenda. This requires organisations to reframe support structures and embed financial wellbeing in the employee experience. Leading With Empathy and Action Financial troubles contribute significantly to mental health and eventually manifest as physical breakdowns. 

Serious and prolonged financial stress can impact an employee’s decision-making abilities and affect workplace culture. Since personal finances take up a lot of an individual’s mental real estate, it needs to be treated as a separate area of concern in any corporate wellbeing framework.

A Finsafe study of workplace financial wellbeing reveals that 70% of corporate Indians seek reliable financial planning advice and information, suggesting that financial literacy is a significant barrier to achieving financial wellbeing. Employers are well-positioned to offer an unbiased “knowledge infrastructure” that can support and empower this group. 

Financial wellbeing programs designed to be intentional, organized, and inclusive should adapt to employees’ individual needs and help build financial confidence where and when required. At their core, these initiatives should aim to equip employees with the fundamentals of budgeting, financial instruments, and practices. Each individual should then be able to access resources that can build upon the fundamentals according to their financial goals, from investment strategy and managing liquidity to retirement planning. 

Employers can offer practical solutions that transcend education, including access to savings instruments and transformative counselling. At its most meaningful, financial wellbeing will be integrated into employee value propositions. Taking A Multi-Generational Approach While financial stress isn’t limited to any one demographic, it manifests differently across generations, shaped by unique experiences and differing financial realities. 

Retail financial wellbeing programs have evolved from the one-size-fits-all model into responsive frameworks that adapt to the needs of diverse groups. Similarly, employers need to design programs that are simultaneously comprehensive and flexible, equipping individuals at different life stages and career levels with resources that are relevant to them. 

Broadly speaking, Gen Z professionals are entering a volatile economic landscape with limited financial literacy, Millennials are grappling with rising living costs and mounting responsibilities, and Gen X workers - usually in their prime working years - are coping with the added pressure of college fees, senior care, and retirement readiness. In addition, each group has distinct consumption patterns. 

For example, social media is a key source of awareness for Millennials, so a strong corporate financial wellbeing program for millennials will include not just education but also gamification and interactivity. Reliable information will counteract the speculative, unregulated recommendations online, but creativity will ensure that the message reaches the right audience. 

 To be truly valuable, a financial wellbeing program should not just be a tick in the box. While financial wellbeing is often seen as a standalone pillar, it deeply influences broader aspects of an employee’s life. 

To capture this interconnectedness, organisations can adopt holistic frameworks such as the PERMA model that was originally developed to assess psychological wellbeing. PERMA’s five pillars - Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment - offer a valuable lens to understand how financial stress or security affects an employee’s overall experience. In addition, employers should regularly track the effectiveness of the financial wellbeing program to ensure that it stays strong. 

Surveys covering participation, perception and satisfaction, as well as data from the different touchpoints will help to keep the program relevant, inclusive, and impactful. Financial wellbeing should be a strategic priority for organisations globally, essential to cultivating a resilient and engaged workforce, and improving talent retention.