Why keeping your employees financial healthy is good for your business

23/09/14
News

Why keeping your employees financial healthy is good for your businessNew research has shown a close link between the financial health of employees, productivity and ultimately business profits.

The research, conducted by Barclays across 100 employers and 2,000 members of staff, produced some surprising results, which could make uncomfortable reading for some business owners.

  • 46% of employees worry about the state of their personal finances
  • Only a third of employees feel optimistic about their financial future
  • 20% of employees avoid thinking about their finances because they find it upsetting; 18% even lose sleep over money worries

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Retirement worries

The survey also discovered that only 31% of employees feel that they are on track financially for retirement.

With Automatic Enrolment just around the corner for many small businesses, employers have the perfect opportunity to ease the retirement concerns of their staff.

Whilst enrolling the qualifying members of your workforce into a pension will go some way to reducing their retirement worries, you could go further:

Communication The more you can communicate with your staff, explaining the ins and outs of pensions, as well as the benefits, the greater the likelihood they will stay opted in to the scheme and even increase their contributions

Contributions As an employer you don’t just have to pay the minimum required by the Automatic Enrolment rules; you could pay more. We’ve seen a number of employers successfully use higher pension contributions to reward key members of staff, help boost staff retention and improve recruitment

Salary Sacrifice This requires careful thought and isn’t right for every employee, but when used correctly it can help to increase the amount paid into your staff’s pensions at no cost to the employee or employer

Employee / employer disconnect

The survey revealed a further reason why some employers should do more to ease the financial concerns of their staff.

According to the research there is a massive gulf between the financial well-being of employers and their staff:

  • 72% of employers think they provide a good benefits package; only 23% of employees believe this is true
  • 63% of employers think they are good at communicating their benefits package; only 20% of employees believe this is true
  • Only 20% of employers think it is acceptable for staff to manage their personal finances at work; 50% of employees believe they should be allowed to do so
  • Just 10% of employees believe their employer cares about their personal finances

The benefits to your business?

The research found that the financial worries of employees reduce productivity and profitability:

  • Productivity 5% of employees have had an average of four days off due to the stress created by financial worries
  • Profitability The financial worries experienced by staff reduces profitability by an average of 4%

It’s clear that putting in place the right benefits package, explaining it clearly to your staff, and where possible providing direct help to ally their financial concerns, is not only the right thing to do, but will also have a significant impact on your business in terms of:

  • Productivity
  • Profitability
  • Staff morale
  • Retention
  • Recruitment

We’re here to help

Not only can our experts help you comply with the basic Automatic Enrolment legislation, but we can also recommend a package of benefits which will suit the needs of your business, as well as your staff.

Furthermore, we can help communicate these benefits to help reduce the possibility of a disconnect between you and your staff.

For more information about how we can help call one of our team today on 0115 933 8433 or drop us an email to info@investmentsense.co.uk