Communications to bring employee financial wellbeing into focus
Part of being a supportive employer is looking out for the wellbeing of your employees, and that includes financial as well as physical and mental wellbeing. While you’re not responsible for employees’ financial wellbeing, you can support them by letting them know about useful resources, financial education, and communicating your in-house initiatives.
An effective communication strategy is key to this – communicating regularly with your employees on the things that matter most to them. Use our recommendations below to start meaningful conversations with your employees.
Communicate your current benefits regularly – and keep them under review
You may already have benefits on offer that can help improve employees’ financial wellbeing, such as an employee assistance programme (EAP). An EAP can provide confidential counselling services to help your employees discuss any issues that may be affecting their lives. Make sure they’re familiar with any assistance services you offer by holding regular events or posting information in prominent places, online or offline.
Your regular communication plans should also raise awareness of your workplace pension – an important and tax-efficient way for employees to save for the future. Encourage employees to remain in their workplace pension and explain the benefits of doing so.
The Pension Quality Mark
If you offer a pension that includes the Pension Quality Mark (PQM), make sure you highlight this in your communications. It’s an accreditation that recognises and celebrates high quality defined-contribution (DC) pension schemes. These pensions go beyond the minimum regulatory requirements, providing good governance and employer contribution levels, encouraging employees to save more towards their retirement.
Build pension awareness with in-house sessions
Our Workplace Communications team can help you run tailored webinars, covering a range of topics including wellbeing in the workplace and the Aegon pension scheme. These sessions provide a useful overview of what’s on offer and gives employees an opportunity to ask questions to make sure they’re making the most of the range of pension benefits on offer.
Let employees know about Aegon Assist
With our workplace pensions, your employees who are scheme members can access our Aegon Assist service. Our Aegon Assist team are UK-based and can guide your employees through their pension options. While they can’t give financial advice, they can provide employees with information to help them make informed decisions. The service is free to all workplace scheme members.
Introduce an overall workplace wellbeing strategy
You could also make financial wellbeing part of a wider drive to encourage healthier habits in your workforce. Healthy lifestyle changes can make a difference on how proactive someone may be with their savings. Things like poor sleep and health can impact financial wellbeing. So, encourage employees to make positive lifestyle choices overall. Leading a healthy lifestyle today, can allow them to prepare for a more comfortable and active life in retirement.
Financial education
As part of your wellbeing programme, you can use our financial wellbeing tools and resources to form the foundation of your financial education content. This includes our Financial Wellbeing Index, evidence-based research, and several easy-to-use online tools to help increase financial wellbeing.
Teaching your employees how to save for the long-term can play a big part in achieving financial wellbeing. Many only save the minimum amount into their workplace pension each month, which may not afford everyone a comfortable retirement or the lifestyle they need beyond work.
By using a finance expert who is a third party to speak at any wellbeing events, your employees may feel more willing to open-up about how they feel about their finances. It’s also worth talking to your employee benefit providers to see if they have financial education materials you could use.
Top tip: make your financial education sessions digital and accessible to all workers. If you can record sessions, even better, allowing employees to re-watch them anytime.
Next steps to consider
Here’s a few suggestions you may want to put in place to make your financial wellbeing communication programme a success:
Get the conversation going
To start the conversation around financial wellbeing – consider bringing in a third party. Your employees may be more willing to share their thoughts with an independent financial expert, than someone who they work with regularly.
Support managers with training and education
Create an environment where employees feel comfortable talking to their managers about your financial wellbeing programme. You can do this by supporting your senior staff with financial education and training, allowing them to be in the best position to assist with any queries or concerns that staff may have. It also allows you to keep the conversation going around financial wellbeing and stay open to feedback.
Share resources to encourage good saving habits
Help employees improve their current financial situation by encouraging them to make some changes to their spending and saving behaviour. See our Tools, research and resources area for many resources you can share.
Communicating with your employees
Your employees’ financial situation can have a huge impact on how they feel and perform. By communicating and encouraging your employees to become better engaged with their finances, you'll be able to promote workplace wellbeing.
We've created ready-to-use campaign material to help you promote financial wellbeing and help support employees.