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The 3 most effective ways to measure financial wellbeing

The 3 most effective ways to measure financial wellbeing

1. The employee questionnaire

One option of measuring staff financial wellbeing is to run anonymous surveys, questionnaires or Typeforms on a regular basis, to find out more about their financial situation and how it changes over time. 

These could include questions about how teams feel about their finances, how often they worry about money and how much it impacts their work. 

You could also ask what areas staff would like help with - from budgeting to saving to buying their first house - and where they are currently struggling, for example with managing rising costs or paying off debts.

Now, you may feel as if you’re probing into your employees’ personal lives and they may be reluctant to open up about their finances at first. However, you may be surprised at how many people would like their employer to help.

Claro Wellbeing’s Workplace Today report suggests that more than one in two (55%) workers do not think their employer cares about their financial wellbeing. 

What’s more, over a third (69%) of employees feel their company should do more to support their personal finances. 

Claro Wellbeing has an employee survey which can be sent out to staff via a secure link. All answers are aggregated by Claro and the results are shared in a clear and simple format. 

It focuses on how staff feel about their money and explores what areas they need support with, such as budgeting or investing, and what they would like to ask a financial expert. If you’d like to try it with your team, email employeewellbeing@claro.team.

Keep the feedback loop going using online forms, a dedicated email address and regular discussion groups to evolve your programme and ensure it is remains relevant for your people.

 

2. The impact on productivity, retention and absenteeism

We know poor financial wellbeing impacts productivity at work, leads to increasing sick days and repeated job hopping. 

You may already have robust systems in place to measure productivity, absence and retention, but let’s look at how each one can be affected. 

Firstly, we know financial stress affects productivity. More than two in three (67%) workers say money worries impact their work with over half (59%) saying it makes them less productive in their role. 

Measuring productivity will differ between teams, roles and industries but having robust metrics in place will help you track your workforce’s efficiency. Introducing a financial wellbeing programme will reduce employees’ financial stress and improve productivity along the way.

Secondly, we also know that almost one in five (17%) take more sick days as a result of financial stress. 

Stress, anxiety and depression are also the biggest contributors to long-term sickness absence in the UK economy - and worrying about money plays a significant part. 

Tracking sickness absence rates before and after a financial wellbeing programme is introduced is another useful way to measure if it is working.

And finally, staff turnover. Retention is a complicated area and people leave for all sorts of reasons. This could include a lack of job satisfaction or opportunities for progression, or culture clash. 

What we do know is the power of job satisfaction in the retention game.

While 19% of workers say they plan to leave their current job for one offering a higher salary if the cost of living crisis continues or gets worse, eight in 10 (81%) said a financial wellbeing programme would increase their job satisfaction - with almost one in four saying it would do so greatly, according to Claro Wellbeing research.

 

3. Engagement with other benefits

Are you noticing more engagement with other company benefits, such as your workplace pension or company shares scheme? 

This could indicate improved financial wellbeing as staff may have more money to invest in their future and a better understanding of how to make smarter decisions with their money. 

This could also be the case if you see more of an uptake with childcare benefits, discounts or vouchers, or even the cycle to work scheme, which promises to save workers money on their commute. 

On the flipside, an increase in staff engaging with salary advance schemes - which allow them to access their wages before payday - or more frequently, could indicate they are struggling.

If you notice more employees opting out of their workplace pension, or other salary sacrifice schemes, or requesting cash instead of holiday days or other benefits, this may also be a sign of poor financial wellbeing. 

For more information on measuring the ROI of your financial wellbeing programme, see our guide

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