Claro Wellbeing supports Ogilvy with workshops to empower personal finances

Ogilvy UK enlisted the help of Claro Wellbeing to empower its people to take control of their personal finances, by leading workshops at Ogilvy’s all-company “Learning Day”. Employees joined a suite of full-to-capacity workshops, rating them 8.5/10 stars.

Each November, Ogilvy UK – a leading advertising, marketing and PR agency – runs a Learning Day for its employees to get together in the London office and discover new ways to look after their wellbeing.

With financial stress levels in the UK high due to the cost of living crisis – and wellbeing and finances being inextricably linked – the firm wanted to use the Learning Day to offer its people valuable personal finance support from a leading financial wellbeing provider.

CSR Manager Amy Shaw, in charge of arranging the day’s sessions, knew it was also important for the workshops to be sensitive and inclusive. 

Those struggling with financial stress would need to feel that they were being supported by the company.

The support would need to equip employees from a range of different life stages – from those with less personal finance experience and confidence to those with more.

“It was really important that no one should feel excluded, but that everyone would be left with valuable, actionable things to take away from the day.” 

– Amy Shaw, CSR Manager, Ogilvy

Initial internal feedback revealed interest in understanding budgeting and cashflow management, financial wellbeing and creating a financial plan.

With this feedback in mind, the Ogilvy team began to search for a provider to help them.

Enter: Claro Wellbeing

Ogilvy’s HR team chose to work with Claro Wellbeing, with some of its members already seeing in The Guardian how its financial coaches supported people during the pandemic.

Working with the Claro Wellbeing team and Ogilvy's internal stakeholders, Amy created a plan for the day. 

A range of topics for two workshops was discussed. The team at Ogilvy settled on these two:

1. Taking care of your financial confidence and wellbeing in difficult times
2. Now is the time to budget
   
   

Each would take the form of a one-hour workshop, taking place twice to enable as many employees as possible to join. 

During the sessions, Claro Wellbeing’s Head of Employee Wellbeing Stacey Lowman guided participants through the workshop content and answered questions at the end.

Those participating in the first topic gained a framework for measuring their own financial wellbeing, understanding how the cost of living crisis affects them and how to manage their spending, saving and investing.

And those participating in the second topic gained an awareness of how to think beyond the paycheque to paycheque cycle and build a financial plan. They also learnt the fundamentals of budgeting and gained practical savings habits and tips across common budget categories – like household, food and energy bills.

Four successful workshops delivered, with high turnout, engagement and ratings 

Claro Wellbeing’s workshops drew hundreds of employees across the four sessions, with attendees giving the sessions an 8.5/10 star rating.

Claro Wellbeing’s Stacey Lowman led the day’s talks at Ogilvy’s office in Sea Containers.

Participants actively asked questions during the Q&As at the end of each session. And they were left with actionable items they could take away from the session to improve their financial health and wellbeing.

Giving feedback following the session, employees revealed they had decided to set new goals – like building an emergency fund, budgeting more consciously for birthdays and Christmas, reviewing their pension contributions and checking their credit score in preparation for buying their first home.

The workshops also helped showcase how employees could make the most of their existing benefits with Ogilvy, like its pensions programme, helping to boost uptake across the organisation’s benefits package.

“Wellbeing is a broad and complex topic, and addressing the reasons behind people feeling stressed and worried is important. We chose to work with Claro Wellbeing as the team has huge experience in delivering coaching and workshop sessions with people of all ages.

The group workshops were useful in starting constructive and positive discussions around money, and gave the team actionable tips on how they can improve their individual personal finance habits. With inflation at record highs, it was important that we support our staff and their financial wellbeing.”

– Gemma Davies, Head of People, Ogilvy

“The day was a great success and we’re so pleased that you were able to contribute your expertise for all colleagues to enjoy.”

— Ogilvy Team