The government has announced a plan to turn Britain into a nation of savers by 2030, and at the same time cut the number of households relying on credit cards by launching a financial wellbeing programme.  Which prompted us to ask – what is financial wellbeing?

Some of the figures we’ve uncovered are worrying:

• 36% of Britain’s employees have financial worries
• This group are many times more likely than the rest of the population to have sleepless nights, aren’t able to finish daily tasks, and have troubled relationships with work colleagues
• They are more likely to be depressed and are more prone to panic attacks

What does this mean for employers? 

• For every 1,000 employees, there are 30 lost days per month due to absenteeism
• There are additional training costs
• There are additional recruitment costs as this group are more likely to be looking for another job
• This gives an impact of between 9% and 13% of the salary cost

The 3 salary bands which show the greatest worries about money are those earning less than £10k, between £10-15k, and those earning over £100k – high income doesn’t mean the end of money worries.

So what causes financial stress?  Evidence shows that many people find sticking to a budget in a month to be a challenge and this keeps them in a cycle of short term, expensive debt as 29% of people regularly run out of money before payday.

For those who regularly struggle, their typical financial profile looks something like this:

• The number of days they could live before they have to borrow is 4
• The average amount they save a month is £22
• 70% save nothing each month
• Their average total savings is £246
• 86% have less than £500 in their combined current and savings accounts

What can employers do?  Clearly this lack of financial wellbeing of the workforce has an impact on business.  There are 6 steps that have been identified as the start of a financial wellbeing action plan:

• Make a robust business case which clearly demonstrates the business impact of financial wellbeing
• Make progress by targeting the help at those who need it most
• Know the needs of your workforce as different help will be needed by different people
• Initiate a change in culture where people are encouraged to talk about their problems
• Build a comprehensive communications plan into the strategy so people can discover easily the help available
• Measure the impact, such as sickness rates, retention rates, job satisfaction surveys, benefits take up, or engagement in financial education.

Clearly this is a complex area – read more about it here.

Some fascinating academic research has been released about childrens attitude to money and how they gain financial skills.  Their core findings are that a child’s attitude to money is embedded by the age of 7, and this attitude will be largely maintained throughout their adult life.  The full report is detailed and can be found here.  They look at ways in which good money practise can be taught, which we summarise below.

Google has been studying its own management team, and together with customer satisfaction surveys, has come up with the 10 top attributes of a good boss.  How do these compare to your notion of what makes a good manager?

In the week that saw a lottery win of £170 million, a survey also revealed that for a large part of the population, buying a lottery ticket is their only form of pension planning.  Auto-enrolment has to a large extent changed things as workers now save through company schemes, but we’ve uncovered a few statistics which make for potentially worrying reading if you’re hoping for a happy retirement.

As teabags go plastic-free and bio-degradable – we look at the benefits of a business going green.  And next week we look at the disadvantages…