Our financial wellbeing strategy, as a core pillar of our colleague EVP, began in 2018. This gave us strong foundations when we needed to double down on our efforts in this space in 2022, so that we could best support our colleagues during the cost-of-living crisis.

Our framework is based on 3-pillars of Learn, Borrow, Save. We have continued to develop and evolve the products and resources within the framework based on feedback from colleagues and the current economic environment.

As a diverse business, our strategy must be inclusive, no matter what the income level of a colleague. By using our scale and strategic partnerships, we developed bespoke content and products that are easily accessible wherever you work in our business. 

Another challenge we faced was helping colleagues to feel comfortable to talk about financial wellbeing, and break down the stigma and barriers which currently exist around the topic. We continue to have a regular drumbeat of conversation with colleagues about financial wellbeing to normalise it.

Our colleague demographic means we need a communication strategy that recognises there is not a one size fits all approach to consuming content and that 255,000 colleagues do not have online access at work.  Every 2022 campaign included printed material for our offline population with QR codes giving easy access to on-demand online content on personal devices where available.

We also have a community of Wellbeing Champions who are based on the ground in every location and are upskilled on every campaign, empowering them to deliver key messages face to face and support their peers.

Our financial wellbeing strategy success is measured by our colleague’s interaction with our 3 pillars; how many interact with our educational resources, how many use our benefits to save money every day and for the future, how many choose our pay advance and loan options, avoiding expensive, unsustainable borrowing, the core objective underpinning our proposition.

Since launch in 2018, 215,000 colleagues have visited our financial wellbeing hub, with over 2 million total page views.

In 2022 alone we saw:

• 3,138 loans funded
• over £1.1m of earned pay was accessed through Pay Advance
• increased participation year on year in our Save As You Earn schemes
• a 43% increase in colleague registrations for Deals and Discounts, with £1m saved in 2022
• 850,000 extra hours shifts have been claimed by colleagues since June 2022

Take time to understand and listen to your colleague’s needs to ensure your strategy is helpful. There are a lot of different products and support on the market, but they might not all be suitable for your workforce.

We gained a lot of insight from piloting new ideas with a smaller population of our colleagues before full roll out, however don’t be afraid to jump straight in if it is the right thing for your colleagues. In most cases with financial wellbeing any support is better than no support and you can continue to evolve and add to your proposition as you go along – you don’t have to wait for everything to be ready at the same time. Don’t be disheartened by a slow burn on some aspects of your strategy, not everything will appeal to all colleagues at the same time, the key is having the support there for colleagues when they need it.

We believe that our financial wellbeing strategy has helped our colleagues with their financial literacy and confidence. Through Learn, Borrow and Save, colleagues can access a wide range of educational material, tools and guides to help them make the right decisions for them as well products to support them at times of need. Our strategy is inclusive to all colleagues and we are continuing to develop and add to it based on feedback from colleagues. Financial wellbeing is a topic which is always on, whilst we have a solid strong foundation of support and products for colleagues currently, we will never have a ‘complete’ proposition because the external environment is continually changing with new areas of support need to be added at the right time. It is really rewarding to be able to see the difference you can make to colleagues with the right support, on such an important topic.