“Moving to a preventative Financial Wellbeing model is really important,” says Gareth Hind, Director of Colleague Experience and Relations at First Bus.
“We’ve been guilty in the past, at a societal level, of putting lots of plasters over the symptoms but not fundamentally helping at the source of the problem.”
Clearly, this is a realisation the government has also had with its recent ramped-up focus on getting people to save and invest their money, especially those on lower incomes.
Help your employees to save
For instance, on 6th April the criteria for eligibility to the government’s ‘Help to Save’ accounts will widen for individuals, expanding the scheme’s reach to all working individuals receiving a Universal Credit of £1 or more.
This scheme enables entitled individuals to get a bonus of 50p for every £1 they save over four years. As it’s government backed, all savings in the scheme are guaranteed to be secure by the Treasury.
Chris Tweddell, Help to Save Process Owner Team, HMRC, describes this scheme as a no-brainer because “basically the government is giving you free money”.
“People have realised that it’s not as difficult as they thought to save money and have money in the bank when things go wrong,” he says. “And there’s no big penalties [like with other investments] for taking money out.”
Lower income workers
He admits, though, that uptake has not been as good as he would have hoped, which he, partly, puts down to the fact that “people might think it’s too good to be true”.
Another reason, certainly, could be that the scheme is aimed at lower income workers who are often not targeted by savings and investment programmes or providers and, so, are likely to lack financial education.
However, it’s these low income workers, in particular, that are being hit hardest by the current cost of living crisis (even though, as we have stressed repeatedly in articles, poor Financial Wellbeing can happen to anyone – even someone wealthy – because it is often about control and confidence, rather than how much money you have in the bank or in assets).
Employers can better signpost
Another reason is that employers haven’t embraced it as much as they could have, given it is such an obvious win for employees. Why not?
“I think the problem with it is that employers don’t see the results from the scheme, in terms of who signed up, because we can’t divulge that,” says Tweddell. “And employers want to know results. So, unless employees tell them, we have no way of giving them indicative figures.”
Tweddell believes that employers could do more to signpost the scheme, and educate themselves about it, which would significantly help lower earners to save. (Help to Save will be on hand at The Watercooler to talk about this more face to face to answer any questions and explain more, see here).
But, as mentioned already, for some lower earners, talking to them about savings and investments when they are struggling to survive financially in the present moment – let alone the future – is too much. It could even be alienating.
Heat or eat?
“We were recognising that through the cost of living crisis people were having to choose to ‘heat or eat’ and, so, health didn’t get a look-in,” says Hind.
Through talking to employees, he realised that people were wearing glasses with prescriptions that were way out of date because they couldn’t afford to go to the optician, for example. Or they’d had toothache for months but didn’t dare to go to the dentist for fear of the potentially hefty bill.
“We wanted to solve this problem for them, which affects not only their physical health but their Financial Wellbeing too,” he says.
“So we put in Simplyhealth, the cashback policy for everyday healthcare essentials, free of charge for every colleague. To me, the case was clear that we needed to do this.”
Money First Aid
As well as the human case (which Hind is passionate about) the business case was also clear: “this is about preventative wellbeing; attrition and absence reduced and there was increased engagement.”
Hind also hired Money First Aid to help educate its people about money, destigmatise talking about the issue, and help them feel supported and not alone, realising how prevalent financial worries are.
“Talking about pension planning and investing is great for future financial planning, but when someone is facing an immediate financial challenge that’s impacting their day-to-day wellbeing, these long-term benefits may not feel relevant or useful,” says Rachel Harte, Co-Founder of Money First Aid.
Life events and their link
“So the types of challenges we talk about are things like debt crisis, living paycheck to paycheck, gambling, addiction, financial abuse, scams, divorce, bereavement, etc. These all have a massive impact on Financial Wellbeing. But people don’t automatically link Financial Wellbeing to life events like a cancer diagnosis; but they are undeniably linked.”
There is much evidence to back her up, such as 86% of people saying their financial situation has made their mental health problems worse (ref. Mental Health Policy Institute) and 57% say finances are the top cause of stress in their lives (ref. PWC).
Harte aims to talk about all these “taboos”, especially the crucial relationship between money and mental health. The model also focuses on making these issues more relatable (something that traditionally corporate financial education, typically around pensions, has been criticised for not being).
Bring empathy, not stigma, to the issue
She talks about the context that leads to the financial situation, rather than getting straight into the numbers and problem solving. Doing this – identifying the individual as ‘someone in debt that needs help’ – makes the person feel instantly stigmatised and, so, not psychologically safe, or in the best mindset to take on new information.
“We really try to bring that empathy and human approach to thinking about someone’s situation rather than how, perhaps, these situations have been perceived culturally in the past,” she says.
Once trust and relatability have been established, the conversations and workplace support can develop into practical considerations like building financial resilience and longer term planning.
Peer to peer power
Hind waxes lyrical about the ethos and approach of Money First Aid:
“I love what this new business does and how its founders really want to make a difference in this sector. The Money First Aid peer to peer approach is really powerful because employees are, realistically, unlikely to open up to leadership or HR.”
In January, First Bus announced it would be rolling out its Money First Aid training, following a pilot, to a further 300 key members of staff, including all mental health first aiders and wellbeing champions.
Hind’s biggest piece of advice to other employers wanting to genuinely impact their employees’ Financial Wellbeing is to keep asking their staff questions and “draw insight from qualitative and quantitative data”.
“All of what we do is about humans,” he says. “People are at the core of the transformation of our business and we can’t transform without really understanding what people need. When you can get to the bottom of what is going on, that’s when you can diagnose solutions that help, shape and make a difference. It’s also when you can be bold.”
Help to Save is exhibiting at the The Watercooler Event, on 7th and 8th May 2025at ExCeL in London, which is Europe’s leading trade show, with free-to-attend content, dedicated to creating workplaces that empower both people and business to thrive.
Now in its fourth year, it’s two days of cutting-edge employee health, wellbeing, workplace culture, networking and product discovery – celebrating the future of work. Co-located with The Office Event for the full 360 degree workplace experience.
You can find out more and register to attend here.
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