Financial wellness has become a protocol for employees now because when they have stress due to money, it can affect their mental and physical health.

This kind of wellness means having no worries caused due to lack of money.

Hence, employees have to take control of their expenses to ensure this kind of wellness.

Moreover, the companies can encourage employees to save money for the latter’s betterment. It’s because when employees have control over their expenditures, they are not stressed about finances.

Financial wellness is crucial for companies because not having the right kind of cash can impact employees. They can find it tough to concentrate on work and lose their productivity.

They can feel more motivated to perform when they have stable finances, which are possible with better finance management. Employees have complained in the past that lack of proper finances causes sleep deprivation, which is detrimental for a company. In a research done by the DNA of Financial Wellbeing including 750 employers and 11,000 employees of UK, it was found that employees are worried about their retirement finances. This survey concluded that employers are losing a lot of money, i.e. approximately 15.2 Billion Euros because employees stay absent from work due to their financial concerns and even change jobs.

Every year, employees take 2.5 days off due to their financial problems in the UK. Here is how employers can help employees manage their expenses:

Providing them retail vouchers

The employees can be given discounted vouchers for shopping and groceries. This helps them indulge in their tastes too without going overboard. It’s because millennials want to party harder apart from working, too. The employees should know how to use these discount vouchers. Companies can ensure that money is deducted from their salaries in return for these vouchers but ensure that the employees get to shop from the brand of their choice. The HR’s can maintain a list of which is an employee’s favorite shopping brand for retail and groceries.

A concierge service is an important part of the hotel industry now because guests can get recommendations about which nightspots to visit etc. Similarly, you can make sure that your employees get such services also, so they can be guided about which discount vouchers to use and when. For example, if you have given ticketing discounts to employees, they should know when to avail of the flight because such offers are time sensitive and expire. Even hotel discounts have the same problem.

Helping them meet fitness targets

Employers can also help their employees maintain their fitness goals in the New Year. They can ensure that the employees have access to discount coupons of fitness portals so that they can get gym memberships at low rates. They can also opt for sports goods ordering at cheap rates through such portals.

Advising them about financial security

The employees have to be advised about financial security because unexpected events can happen at any time. There can be a medical emergency that can delete all their savings. Hence, it’s important that they have savings so that they are not without any resources on a rainy day. With proper financial aid such as insurance policies, employees can have peace of mind knowing that they won’t have to ask for help in case of emergencies.

Providing them with salary sacrifice options

Employees can also opt for salary sacrifice, which is a popular scheme in the UK. Although most of the on cash benefits are no longer exempt from tax, the employees can still get benefits such as child care through a salary sacrifice scheme. A salary sacrifice is when an employee agrees to swap some of his cash pay with a non-cash benefit and be exempt from tax payments on the latter. An employer has to ask the employee for such an arrangement by including it in the employment contract.

Hence, employees can make sure that they give up on some of their cash salaries to make payments for workplace nurseries and childcare. As per the salary sacrifice scheme, the employees can get 2 Euros from the government for every 8 euros they submit into the childcare account, which has to be opened up at on the gov.co.uk website. But to be exempted from tax, make sure that your childcare provider has signed up with the Tax-Free Childcare scheme. So they not only get these 8 Euros exempted from tax, but they also get an extra 2 Euros. The employees can get the amount of up to 2000 Euros per year. So employees can get help from such a scheme because they can avail child care expenses through such child care vouchers such as arranging home care workers for them.

They can also swap some of their cash salaries for using a cycle to commute to work. So this is an excellent way for employees to cut down on their taxes. But, when situations change and employees don’t want any non-cash benefits such as childcare vouchers because they might be working from home due to the pandemic, they can ask their employer to cut back the salary sacrifice and receive the salary in cash.

Employees also feel happy when they realize that the employer is concerned about their financial well-being.

Can e-learning help?

Employers have to help employees manage their financial issues through e-learning. It’s because these problems differ with employees in different age groups. Younger employees have a tough time managing their current expenses and fixed asset needs like getting a house, and older employees are worried about managing their expenses after retirement.

Companies should provide older employees with sufficient resources to do their retirement planning, which can include audio files on how to manage money.

Employees can be taught about when they would like to retire when they have enough funds to go through old age. The employees can decide how much they would like to work after a certain age, depending on their past and current savings and future expenses. The companies can advise employees on which scheme they should invest in as per the rate of interest offered. Also, they should invest depending on how many years they have left to work because the lesser the years, the more lucrative should be an investment.

With financial e-learning for retirement, employees can retire at an appropriate age, leaving their job open for new employees helping the new talent to blossom.