Making people feel comfortable enough to talk.
It’s difficult. Especially when the subject matter is deeply personal.
Over the last few years there has been huge progress when it comes to addressing the stigma associated with mental health.
That progress has been notable within the workplace.
According to the Employer’s Guide to Financial Wellbeing 2020-21 (from Salary Finance), 44% of employees would now feel comfortable talking to their line manager about their mental health.
An even bigger 54% would feel okay talking to their line manager about their physical health.
However, when it comes to conversing about financial wellbeing the willingness drops sharply.
The same survey showed that just 29% of employees would feel comfortable talking about their own financial wellbeing with their line manager.
Plus there is still a large number of employees who don’t feel comfortable talking to anybody about any aspect of their own wellbeing.
That’s a sad state of affairs – and we need to start getting those numbers much higher!
If a company offered a holistic financial wellbeing programme that gives employees guidance, insight and financial advice (if they wanted it), then a line manager would be in a much better position to help, and steer the employee in need onto the right path.
Financial wellbeing matters. It matters for every individual in every organisation.
