Member Article

The link between financial health and wellbeing

The spotlight is finally shining on wellbeing at work. With products that are intrinsically linked to the wellbeing of employees such as gym membership, private healthcare and insurance, all advertised across mainstream media, they have now become the expected norm.

Numerous studies are now showing a correlation between these kinds of benefits and employee wellbeing, from productivity and reduction in workplace stress, to retention and staff loyalty.

It is also encouraging to see that mental health awareness and areas such as pension education are becoming more of a priority for employers. These are all brilliant, innovative schemes, addressing real life issues affecting real people.

But what if we could get to the root of many of these problems? What is the one thing that affects us all, but is rarely discussed openly? The answer? Money.

Money not only affects our mental health, but also our physical health. Numerous articles have shown the link between money issues and stress. Such is the severity of the issue that the NHS and abouthealth.com have created advice pages on financial related stress.

Barclays recently found that 46% of employees worry about their finances. This demonstrates that it isn’t just those who have obvious debt issues that need help. In recent years, the National Debtline revealed that most callers are aged between 25 and 50, and that 45 per cent of callers are in full‐time employment, with a further ten per cent in part‐time employment. Wages are clearly not the cure. The demographic of the face of financial need has changed.

The solution, we believe, is a combination of education and action, and it has to be owned by the individual.

An employee can be told as many times as they like to improve themselves financially, but until they have the internal drive and access to solutions to help it is unlikely to change.

If individuals need in-depth financial tracking, financial assistance to get themselves out of a difficult time, or if they simply need more advice and guidance, these individual solutions should be provided. Every person should have a detailed, hands-on personal financial agenda.

People need a ladder, not a crutch; and personalised, proactive finance is the way forward. In making the tools available to employees through financial wellbeing in the workplace, an employer can give their workforce the hands-on help they need to become debt free.

Karim Peer, CEO of Balmoral Financial

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Balmoral Financial .