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Spotting the signs early of financial stress can be key to productivity and output at your company. But how about nipping it in the bud early?
SPOTTING THE SIGNS OF FINANCIAL STRESS IN THE WORKPLACE
For busy HR professionals and increasingly Wellness and People Management Teams, spotting the early signs of financial stress in the workplace has become a vital and key part of their role. Individuals all react differently to financial stress but two of the most obvious metrics to monitor are Absenteeism and Presenteeism with both extremes of behaviour capable of producing deeply negative business outcomes.
In a recent report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (September 2023) absenteeism due to financial worries in employees costs the UK some £3.7billion annually. Presenteeism is estimated to be even higher at some £6.6 billion annually.
Worryingly, the trend is on the rise with 12% of the workforce missing work due to financial concerns in 2023, up from 10% in 2021.
Absenteeism
The link between Financial Wellbeing and health – both physical and mental - is long established with Health and Care professionals meeting people every day who are living in increasing situational poverty or just simply struggling with their finances – whatever their level of employment status. Absenteeism is, unfortunately, one of the early signs of financial stress and it’s a growing problem.
Having a dialogue and a corporate plan around Financial Wellbeing is not just about spotting trends from a corporate level in order to deal with them directly, it’s about empowering the individual before financial stress occurs. The impacts on health are undeniable and well-proven through numerous studies and with the right digital and personal interaction, working with and alongside teams, team leaders and employees to create an environment of positivity and pro-action around Financial Wellbeing, the output and productivity benefits as well as retention and engagement statistics are surprising.
Presenteeism
Presenteeism is when an employee is constantly present at work despite being unwell or is attending the workplace out of hours or at weekends. Illnesses are unpreventable; and taking time off work is completely normal but some employees feel the need to continue working despite their sickness with a knock-on effect through the workplace and the creation, potentially of a damaging culture. Working extraordinary hours and claiming overtime benefit can sometimes be seen as a dedicated worker but often can be a red flag for deeper-rooted financial issues brewing. The main causes of why employees practice ‘presenteeism’ can be due to:
How Prift helps employees and employers reduce both absenteeism and presenteeism.
Understanding your finances, seeing a clear vision of the now, the medium view and the long-term forecast for your wealth in a personalised format gives employees on the Prift platform the clearest snapshot of their current and future wealth. Small steps and positive savings changes can make a huge difference over time to an individuals’ wealth. Seeing those changes extrapolate over the longer term in clear and easy to understand, personalised graphs and tables gives reassurance whilst using the everyday savings tool, available to all employees on Prift, begins to build the saving habit in a real, tangible fashion.
A tool that HR professionals can rely on
The Prift platform is the one-stop Financial Wellbeing solution that HR professionals and Company Wellness Teams have been looking for. No integration issues. No long development times. Prift is a plug and play platform for every company no matter the size, or employee location, and is driven by the huge advances in Open Banking and increasingly (and ongoing) advances in Open Finance. Financial Guidance on the platform is rules-based and highly personalised, giving the user useful, tailored financial hints and tips that builds their overall financial literacy and confidence.
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