For many organisations, employee wellbeing has changed significantly over the past decade.
Mental health is now part of mainstream workplace conversation.
Employers invest in awareness, manager training, employee assistance, flexible working and access to support.
Physical wellbeing has similarly become an established part of the employee experience.
But there is another part of people's lives that can have a profound impact on how they feel, work and cope: their financial wellbeing.
So, as we mark National Financial Awareness Day, it's worth asking a bigger question:
Could financial wellbeing be the next major workplace wellbeing priority - and are employers ready?
Financial wellbeing is more than financial education
Financial wellbeing is sometimes reduced to financial education: helping employees understand pensions, savings, investments or household budgeting.
Those things have value, but financial wellbeing is broader.
It's about whether people feel sufficiently informed, confident and financially resilient to manage their circumstances and make decisions about their future.
That might mean understanding where their money is going, building an emergency buffer, managing debt, preparing for unexpected costs or simply having a clearer picture of their financial health.
For employers, the important point is that financial wellbeing doesn't exist separately from the rest of an employee's life.
Money worries can affect stress, relationships, concentration, sleep, confidence and decision-making. Financial security can influence whether someone feels able to take time off, cope with an unexpected expense or make a long-term career decision.
That makes financial wellbeing relevant to the wider employee experience - not just the benefits package.
The workplace has an important role to play
Employers are uniquely placed to help people access support.
The workplace already provides a trusted route to pensions, salary, benefits, health support and other forms of wellbeing assistance.
It can also provide a route to financial wellbeing support.
That doesn't mean employers should become responsible for employees' personal finances, nor should HR teams be expected to provide financial advice.
Instead, organisations can create an environment where employees have access to appropriate tools, information and support. And where asking for help doesn't feel like a sign of failure.
That distinction is important.
The government's Financial Inclusion Strategy is a signal for employers
The direction of government policy also makes this an area HR leaders should be watching.
The government's Financial Inclusion Strategy sets out an ambition to improve people's financial resilience and access to appropriate financial products, services and support.
It also recognises the role employers can play in building financial resilience, including through workplace savings.
Among the measures set out in the strategy is the creation of a National Coalition of Employers, intended to increase awareness and adoption of workplace savings schemes, alongside work to provide greater regulatory clarity around workplace savings.
This does not mean that employers are currently required to provide a financial wellbeing programme.
But it does indicate a wider shift towards employers becoming recognised as an important part of the financial resilience ecosystem.
For HR leaders, that makes now a good time to consider what a mature financial wellbeing strategy should look like, rather than waiting for regulation, employee expectations or business pressures to force the conversation.
Could financial wellbeing follow the path of mental health?
There is an interesting parallel with mental health.
Workplace mental health wasn't always treated as an organisational responsibility.
Over time, however, employers increasingly recognised that supporting employee mental health wasn't simply a matter of offering an occasional wellbeing initiative.
It required culture, awareness, accessible support, management capability and prevention.
Financial wellbeing could follow a similar trajectory.
Not because financial wellbeing and mental health are the same - they aren't - but because both demonstrate how something that was once largely considered a private matter can become an important part of the workplace environment.
The question for employers isn't necessarily whether financial wellbeing will become a legal requirement.
It's whether organisations will recognise its importance before that question needs answering.
What should HR leaders be doing now?
The good news is that organisations don't need to transform their entire benefits strategy overnight.
There are some practical places to start.
1. Understand what financial wellbeing means for your workforce
There is no one-size-fits-all financial wellbeing strategy.
An organisation with a predominantly early-career workforce may need to think about different pressures from one with employees approaching retirement.
Consider the circumstances of your workforce and where financial pressure is most likely to arise.
2. Look beyond pensions
Pensions remain fundamental to financial wellbeing, but they are only one part of the picture.
Consider whether employees also have access to support around financial education, saving, debt, budgeting, financial resilience and unexpected costs.
3. Make prevention part of the strategy
Financial wellbeing shouldn't only appear when someone reaches a crisis point.
Think about what you can offer employees when things are going reasonably well, so they can build financial resilience before circumstances change.
Prevention gives people more options.
4. Make support easy to find
A financial wellbeing benefit hidden somewhere on an intranet isn't necessarily an accessible benefit.
Consider how employees discover support, whether they understand it and whether they feel comfortable using it.
Confidentiality and ease of access matter.
5. Give managers clear boundaries
Managers don't need to become financial advisers.
They do need to know how to respond if an employee raises a financial concern.
Clear signposting and guidance can help managers support employees without asking them to solve problems that fall outside their role.
6. Treat financial wellbeing as part of your wider wellbeing strategy
Financial wellbeing shouldn't necessarily sit in isolation.
Consider how it connects with mental health, physical wellbeing, inclusion, reward, employee experience and longer-term financial security.
A joined-up approach is more likely to reflect the reality of employees' lives.
Don't wait for the next crisis - or the next policy change
National Financial Awareness Day is a useful moment for organisations to ask whether financial wellbeing has the attention it deserves.
Not because every employer needs another benefit.
And not because HR should take responsibility for employees' finances.
But because people bring their whole lives to work.
Financial wellbeing is part of that picture.
The organisations that take a preventative approach now can help employees build greater financial confidence and resilience, while creating a workplace culture where financial support is accessible before problems become crises.
Whether financial wellbeing eventually becomes as embedded in workplace practice as mental health remains to be seen.
But the direction of travel is clear enough for HR leaders to start preparing.
Financial awareness shouldn't be a once-a-year conversation.
For employers, National Financial Awareness Day could be the moment to start making financial wellbeing part of the everyday employee experience.
Written by Caroline Chell
Head of Communications
