A third of UK employers (34%) think that high employee stress levels are a direct consequence of their staff not having enough savings, including pensions, according to the latest Close Brothers Business Barometer.
A further 25% have seen employee health issues arise due to money worries, and 14% have seen higher absenteeism for the same reason. Only 17% of employers think that poor financial management by their staff has no impact on their business.
Despite this, nearly half of UK businesses (47%) neither offer financial education to staff nor plan to do so. A mere one in five businesses provide financial education to their workforce, and of those, 14% describe the service they offer as ‘limited’.
The most common financial education programmes are delivered via individual face-to-face meetings, with 37% choosing this method. 35% include group face-to-face conferences and workshops, while 25% use web-based seminars. A further 26% include email education in their programme, and 23% use an online platform. More unusual methods include post (9%) and texts (4%).
Those who offer financial education do so for a variety of reasons. Employers see it as a valued employee benefit (40%), as well as a way to improve employees’ financial wellbeing (37%), and because it’s part of the businesses’ people strategy (33%).
| Top 10 reasons to provide financial education | |
| It is a valued employee benefit | 40% |
| To improve employees’ financial wellbeing | 37% |
| It is part of our people strategy | 33% |
| To improve employee engagement | 25% |
| To ensure employees understand and make the most of all employee benefits | 22% |
| To improve employee productivity | 21% |
| To support engagement with our pension scheme | 17% |
| It represents our culture and brand values | 14% |
| To assist in talent acquisition and retention | 11% |
| To support leavers | 10% |
| To help fulfil our strategic business objectives | 10% |
| To reduce absenteeism | 6% |
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