Supporting employees with cost-of-living issues is rated as eighth on employers’ corporate agendas, while financial wellbeing comes in twelfth, according to research by Close Brothers’ Workplace Financial Wellbeing Services.
The firm’s Spotlight on UK financial wellbeing report, which surveyed 1,009 workers from organisations with 200 or more employees and 504 employers with 200 or more staff, also found that the top issue currently facing employees is keeping up with normal living costs (36%), while 35% are worried about not being able to afford to retire.
There is also a mismatch between the benefits desired by employees and those offered by employer respondents. Three-quarters (74%) of employer respondents provide a pension and 57% offer death-in-service benefits, both of which feature on employees’ list of most-wanted benefits. Holiday purchase or sell back options feature in employees’ list of top 10 most-wanted benefits, however, this only just makes it into employers’ top 20 benefits, with just 26% offering it.
Few employer respondents offer benefits that employees said could make a real difference to their finances, with employee shopping discount schemes offered by 37%, hardship loans provided by 19% and mortgage advice offered by 17%.
Season ticket loans are offered by 33% of employers and bikes-for-work schemes are provided by 55%, despite neither featuring on employees’ benefits wish list. Critical illness cover, which is fourth on the list of employee priorities (34%),meanwhile, is offered by few employer respondents, while dental insurance is offered by 27%.
Advice represents four of the five services employee respondents most value, with 43% saying they would value pensions advice, 36% wanting financial advice and 19% after mortgage advice. Just 22% of employers provide financial advice with a pension provider as part of their retirement planning support and 15% provide financial advice.
Jeanette Makings, head of workplace financial wellbeing at Close Brothers Asset Management, said: “It is increasingly clear that workplace benefits and financial wellbeing programmes have failed to keep pace with shifts at a moment when employees are more engaged than they have ever been with their finances. With the significant influence financial wellbeing has on mental wellbeing, there are huge benefits for employers that are alive to and agile in making changes to their workplace benefits and wellbeing programmes to better align them with employees’ needs.”