The University of Salford ensures it provides comprehensive financial wellbeing support and education that is targeted at all different groups of employees.
Based in Greater Manchester and with 3,000 employees, the university was a runner up in the Best financial wellbeing strategy at this year’s Employee Benefits Awards.
It offers pre-retirement seminars focusing on a holistic approach to pensions, tax implications, the psychological impact of leaving work, wills and estate planning, that are primarily aimed at older workers but do get interest from younger staff as well. These are hosted twice a year by a professional consultancy firm and are free of charge. It also provides pension engagement sessions that are more attended by younger employees, so they can understand the varying pension schemes on offer at the university and the additional benefits of being a member.
The university additionally linked with a local financial advisory firm that held a financial awareness webinar earlier this year aimed at any employee who wanted to learn more about this topic, and received a lot of interest. A session on financial planning is due to take place in September.
As part of its mental health and wellbeing commitment, which covers overall wellbeing as well as physical, mental health and financial wellbeing, it offers every day financial support such as discounts through its employee benefits platform and a salary sacrifice car lease scheme.
The university employs a broad range of employees, from professors and management, to cleaners and administrative staff, so communication methods have to vary, explains James Walsh, reward analyst at University of Salford. Emails and messages through Microsoft Teams are effective, but these do not reach every member of staff.
“Cleaners and security staff for example don’t use emails or work laptops, so we have to be savvy with the way we communicate,” he says. “We try to record all online sessions and distribute them across the university and also allow workers without access to computers to clock off an hour early to join face-to-face sessions and learn about pensions and financial education. We have highlighted our death-in-service benefit through in-person sessions as well as including a message about it on pay slips, as everyone will look at these.”
In addition, employees who have completed their induction at the university are placed into groups on Teams depending on their starting year, going back to 2019. When pension and financial awareness sessions, and new benefit launches are being set up, the university posts in these groups, as well as sending an email round to the entire workforce to ensure it is engaged with and not missed.
“We also use our management structure in different areas of the university to communicate messages such as our free will writing service. They pass this on through meetings with each department.
“Earlier this year, we hosted a professional services conference on a variety of topics, with university staff and benefits providers hosting stalls and offering information about benefits and financial wellbeing support. There was a jump in sign-ups following this, suggesting that often word of mouth and face-to-face discussions work better than emails,” Walsh concludes.