Engaged employees better for business

Clearly, employee demand for financial education is not being met, and companies, in general, are failing to support their staff with sound financial and retirement planning.

According to the research, 51 per cent of employers who have a financial education programme in place said the reason for offering it was to improve employee engagement. Meanwhile, 23 per cent of employees say financial education made them more loyal to their employer and this was significantly higher, at 43 per cent among the younger 16–24 age bracket.

However, many employers don’t provide workplace financial education because they think it would cost too much, or because they do not feel it is their responsibility. Some 38 per cent believe the service is prohibitively expensive and a similar figure thinks it is not something they should be providing to their staff.

But let’s be clear here — financial education is very different to providing financial advice. It is about empowering employees to make their own financial decisions with their newfound knowledge, and I believe that HR has a vital role in moving this initiative forward.

Providing workplace financial education doesn’t have to be at a high cost. It should be seen as an investment, because the benefits significantly outweigh the costs.

To read the full article on Employee Benefits website, please click here.