The modern workplace is constantly evolving. You might be moving towards a hybrid working model, trialling a four-day work week or introducing new technologies into your business. The financial needs and concerns of your employees will be shifting in tandem, which could impact their wellbeing as well as your business.
As an employer, having an understanding of these changes could lead to an even more supportive work environment. This could help enhance workplace performance and engagement. In some cases, it might also help employees feel more financially secure and prepared for the future, potentially improving staff retention.
This guide explores how you could support your employees through their financial journey. Our focus will be on 5 areas:
- Understand your employees’ needs
- upport your employees by providing financial education
- Find ways to boost employee engagement with their pension
- Encourage employees to become financial wellbeing all rounders
- Adapt to a changing world of work
1. Understand your employees’ needs
A good starting point is to understand your employees’ needs when it comes to their pension(s), finances and wellbeing. Knowing your employees’ attitudes to money, work, and pensions could help you to create policies that boost engagement, retention, and productivity. In our article, How do your employees feel about money, work and pensions?, we look at some of the most recent research on how employees’ views have shifted in the last few years.
You’ll already know that people aren’t always upfront about how they feel. Creating an open and supportive space can be vital to help your employees feel comfortable asking for help if they need it. Your employees will all have different experiences and challenges, but a common issue across all workplaces is that employees can often experience burn out. Our article on the 5 signs of employee burnout and how to prevent it shares some of the ways you could approach this.
2. Support your employees by providing financial education
Helping your employees improve their financial literacy could bring long-term benefits for them. Being better informed about different personal finance issues could empower them to make better decisions about their money. And this may mean a positive impact on their future financial wellbeing. We've suggested some of the approaches you could try in our guide, How to improve financial literacy among your employees.
It’s worth bearing in mind that financial education isn’t just about budgeting or managing spending. It could also extend to other related topics, such as potential financial pitfalls. In our guide on How to educate employees about pension scams, we cover the different pension scams to look out for and ways you can offer support as an employer.
3. Find ways to boost employee engagement with their pension
Money worries are well known to negatively affect mental health, and there are many ways you can be supportive as an employer. One way to help is through your business’ pension scheme.
While your employees will be automatically enrolled into your workplace pension scheme, unless they choose to opt out, they might not actually be paying attention to their pension. This is because employees think it’s taken care of for them. You can read more about this in our articles How has auto-enrolment affected different groups of employees? and Has auto-enrolment impacted attitudes to saving?
To boost employees’ engagement with your pension scheme, you might want to consider pairing it with pension education or advice. Our guide on How pension confidence impacts employee financial wellbeing explains why it’s worth doing and how you can do it. You could also help your employees save more into their pension through salary sacrifice schemes. These could benefit your business too – we explore some of these in our guide, Salary sacrifice for employers – what you need to know.
4. Encourage employees to become financial wellbeing all rounders
Now that they’re familiar with the foundations of their pension, consider teaching them how to think long term. The ability to think long term is a fundamental building block to achieve financial wellbeing. Experts have calculated people should be putting away roughly 15% of their income a month into their pension contributions (including employer contributions).1
Read our guide, Help your employees become financial wellbeing all-rounders and our Our insight into the nation’s financial wellbeing for other ideas on ways to support your employees’ financial wellbeing. Both break down the different building blocks of financial wellbeing, and explain ways you could help.
5. Adapt to a changing world of work
Focusing on ways to support your employees with their pension(s) and financial wellbeing can extend to adapting to changes in the world of work. The modern workplace is constantly evolving. It’s shaped by factors such as demographic shifts, changing expectations (for example about flexible working arrangements), and economic pressures.
An ageing population
One demographic shift that has become particularly prominent is the UK’s ageing population, which affects when people choose to retire. For example, in its latest report on the over 50s labour market, the UK’s Department for Work & Pensions found that the average retirement age for both men and women had increased between 2023 and 2024. It also revealed that the State Pension age has a ‘statistically significant impact’ on the employment and inactivity rates of older adults in the same report. Given that the State Pension age could rise in future, there are obviously wider implications to consider.
People are living longer, multi-stage lives
Our guide on What living longer means for you and your employees covers some of the implications of this demographic shift. You might also find our article on Ways to support over 50s returning to work helpful for shaping your policies.
More generally, as employers, it’s important to adapt to the needs of a multi-generational workforce with policies that address different life stages and financial concerns. Otherwise absenteeism and presenteeism could become a problem. We dive deeper into How much is absenteeism and presenteeism costing your business?
If you’re ready to make changes to your business but are not quite sure where to start, read Are your workplace policies equipped for the changing world of work? It includes examples of how the world of work is changing, as well as how you can adapt your business to change with it.
Empowering employees, strengthening the workplace
Supporting your employees’ financial wellbeing could have a positive impact on their lives. It could also benefit your business through improved productivity and better staff retention. There are multiple ways you can support your workforce, ranging from offering financial education to adapting your policies to a changing world. Not every method will suit your business but with a bit of effort, it’s possible to find solutions that are tailored for you.
- Independent review of retirement income: we need a national narrative: building a consensus around retirement income. Data source, Pensions Institute, David Blake, March 2016.