Is 'financial wellness' missing in the wellness initiatives by companies?
Anyone who has ever experienced loss of income, high debt, no security money will vouch for the fact that physical and mental well-being are highly impacted by our financial wellness. In fact, global research by PWC’s Employee’s Financial Wellness Survey, 2023, reveals that majority of the employees remain stressed about their finances.
When we zoom into financial wellness for the women workforce, results are far worse.
Not only do women work lesser hours over their entire career (due to several care-giving career breaks), but the gender pay-gap also adds fuel to the fire.
Interestingly, research suggests that 59% working women in India don’t take independent money decisions. In our work at Womoneysta, with more than 100 corporates & communities, we have found rooms full of women nodding coyly to accept this – demonstrating the hard truth around us.
As employers, creating a structured financial wellness program, which covers not just knowledge sessions, but confidence-building activities, practical demonstrations of various platforms, engaging conversations about money mindset and breaking gender biases on the money topic, is the need of the hour.
Only 5% of corporates in India today have a structured financial wellness program. We see the needle shifting slowly, but surely.
Today, we observe that several HR & D&I leaders are exploring ways to bring a holistic, life-skill like approach towards financial management.
Here are some ways we recommend to integrate financial wellness in 2024 :
- Launch Financial Wellness Cohorts : Say goodbye to just the ‘what-to-do’ money lectures & incorporate the ‘how to do’ part by partnering with platforms who specialize in creating financial journeys.
- Offer Financial Wellness Coaching : Consider having a financial doctor-on-call facility with qualified financial coaches who work on money mindset, money habits, rather than only offering investment advice.
- Peer group learning forums : Say goodbye to boring finance lectures. Another eye-opener – 57% of Indian women lack confidence in managing their finances. We’re making financial literacy cool with workshops that feel more like a TED Talk than a lecture.
- Curate for different employee segments ( blue collared/flexi-worker) : Work doesn’t look the same for everyone – remote work, compressed weeks, part-time gigs – neither does their financial acumen. Create custom-fit solutions to include employees at all levels in the financial wellness conversation.
- Don’t forget to talk Money Mindset : Financial decisions are driven more by our emotional & mindset about money, than the advice we receive. Since money conversations still remain a taboo in our homes, most of us need guidance in building healthy money relationship. Creating sessions, forums and activities through the year to improve the money mindset will go a long way towards employee’s overall well-being.
An investment in a long-term financial wellness program is not just a tick off the box, it is empowering your employees’ with a life-skill to manage their finances with confidence.
Looking for such custom financial wellness programs, connect with us at Womoneysta.