The lost world of financial wellbeing

Marcus Beaver at Alight Solutions explains why and how employers should support their people through their financial woes

 

With UK inflation hitting its highest level since 1981 at 11.1%, energy costs spiralling, and interest rates continuing to rise, financial concerns are at the forefront of many employees’ minds. Our 2022 Alight International Workforce and Wellbeing Mindset Study found that more than half of employees (60%) said their salary doesn’t cover their outgoings.

 

While many companies have wellbeing plans in place, the financial aspect is often neglected. However, this does not mean that the answer is increased pay as in today’s climate, that is often not feasible. What’s essential in developing financial wellbeing programmes is linking strategies to pay and benefits policies to help employees take more control of their finances. There are several ways in which employers can respond here.

 

Consistent and trustworthy payroll

It might seem obvious, but the first step of any financial wellbeing strategy must be ensuring that employees get paid on time and every time. A missed payday or miscalculated payment can result in worry and broken trust. However, ensuring perfect payroll is challenging, especially if employers have an international workforce with differing pay legislation and often fragmented structures. Delivering multi-country payroll is no easy task.

 

Today’s payroll solutions, integrated with HR and finance systems, can streamline payroll processes, control costs, and improve payment accuracy. Ensuring a continuous flow of business intelligence between systems can automate employee bank data verification, enabling accurate, compliant, and secure payment delivery. It can also reduce the administrative burden of global bank transaction management with reliable and fast payments across multiple currencies.

 

Centralising systems allows organisations to embrace automation and avoid costly payroll process failure while providing greater flexibility for employees.

 

Flexible pay options that meet employee needs

Waiting until the end of the month to access salaries leaves many employees facing financial pressure, with the last of the week ramping up the pressure to make last month’s wage stretch. Instead, flexible pay models such as Earned Wage Access (EWA) put employees in control of when and how they access their pay.

 

EWA echoes the digital experiences that employees are used to as consumers, and for employers can provide an essential point of differentiation in a tough labour market. It demonstrates employees are valued for their work, empowered, and supported in their workplace.

 

The traditional weekly or monthly pay run does not always meet the needs of today’s workers but has continued to be the dominant method of remuneration. This is mainly due to the rigidity of employers’ payroll processes, a lack of digital integration, and wariness from payroll practitioners. There are many pervading myths surrounding the implementation of EWA.

 

Besides the rich benefits EWA provides employees, on-demand pay solutions also enable integrated technologies to deliver faster and more efficient payroll solutions. This optimisation mitigates common mistakes or issues that could result from human error and affect business and HR operations.

 

Support and empathy in times of crisis

Alongside the practical solutions that can support flexible and faultless payroll, employers can also support their employees with information and resources. Crucially, they should also consider how they can communicate with empathy and understand employees’ financial pressures.

 

Less than a fifth of employees (15%) say they currently receive personalised communications around financial-related benefits. This should be enough for employers to consider how they can support access to information and advice to better fit their staff.

 

Whether partnering with a third party, creating a digital information hub or empowering managers to signpost employees more effectively, much can be done to show employees you recognise their worries. Helping people take control of their financial future is a powerful way to build trust and loyalty.

 

Of course, this also requires employers to truly understand their workforce. Two-way empathetic communication is essential to building a picture of your workforce, so you can tailor your approach to financial wellbeing to their needs.

 

A new world of financial wellbeing

Today’s economic crisis impacts us all, and so it is no longer an option for employers to leave employees to suffer in silence. Supporting better financial wellbeing requires a new approach, which today’s HR and payroll technologies can help deliver efficiently and cost-effectively.

 

Such strategies answer the needs of employers and employees alike and are the future of workplaces that put wellbeing first.

 

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Marcus Beaver is UKI Country leader at Alight Solutions

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com