According to the Financial Wellbeing Research 2023[1] from the Reward & Employee Benefits Association (REBA) in association with WEALTH at work, financial wellbeing support is integral to employers being able to meet their high-level HR objectives.
Nearly all (96%) hope to use their financial wellbeing strategy as a tool to meet their HR objective of improving employee wellbeing, while 95% hope to boost their employee engagement levels, and 93% hope to use their strategy to retain employees.
However, whilst the majority (76%) of employers offer lots or some relevant financial wellbeing benefits, they recognise that they are not part of a joined-up strategy.
The disjointedness of employers’ wellbeing strategies could possibly be attributed in part to reacting to the cost-of-living crisis. Over half (57%) of employers have made changes to their financial wellbeing offering in the past two years, and over half (64%) cite the crisis as a key driver of change to their strategy in the same period.
Looking ahead, it seems that financial wellbeing strategies are going to continue to evolve given that half (50%) plan to make changes to their strategies in the next two years, with 50% planning to increase their benefits spend in 2023/24, and 47% retaining current levels of spending. Encouragingly, almost three quarters (74%) of employers plan to join up their financial offering and benefits in the next two years.
Jonathan Watts-Lay, Director, WEALTH at work, comments; “Employers may have been reactive in their approach to financial wellbeing as employees have struggled with day-to-day money worries and of course it is important that they remain nimble and react quickly when financial shocks hit the workforce. However, there is now an opportunity for reward and benefits professionals to take a forward-looking view and begin to bring together benefits into a more coherent and joined-up strategy.”
