What is Workplace Financial Wellbeing? Part 4

At the IFW we receive a lot of queries about Workplace Financial Wellbeing. Charlie Goodman, a Board member at the Institute for Financial Wellbeing and head of the IFW’s Workplace Financial Wellbeing offering, has written a 4-part article on this topic.

Read ‘What is Workplace Financial Wellbeing?’ part 1.

Read ‘What is Workplace Financial Wellbeing?’ part 2.

Read ‘What is Workplace Financial Wellbeing?’ part 3.

Financial coaching in the workplace is still in its infancy in the UK workplace market.

The definition of financial coaching ranges from individual guidance on how things work to digging deeper into the psychology and mindset of our relationship with money.

The larger providers with their scalable offerings tend to provide 1 to 1 financial guidance (not advice), tools to support the guidance given, aids to help people form positive habits, and a person to hold them accountable.

For instance a coach may talk an employee through budgeting, working out which debts to pay off first, or how much to put in their ISA or pension.

They don’t (and shouldn’t) recommend products or investments or give tax advice. Some may then connect individuals with regulated financial advisers to do this.

Typically they also run some sort of financial platform too, and may offer group sessions on broader subjects.

A lot of their structure is built on a core benefit being offered and paid for by the employer, usually leveraging the allowance for salary sacrifice pension advice, and then options for the individual to buy additional sessions on their own.

The future of the workplace financial wellbeing market

In my view, the future of the workplace financial wellbeing market will be platform-based, where employees can see all their finances in one place, and receive tailored guidance and education based on that information, with connections to coaches and planners for deeper dives into their money mindsets and long-term planning solutions.

This is because the platforms will provide economies of scale that the old analogue approaches can’t, which will make these services available to the mass market while filling much of the perceived ‘advice gap.’

These platforms will provide employers with data analytics to show how employees are progressing, show where their needs are, and show what the return on investment is to executives and the finance team.

In summary, workplace financial wellbeing has the potential to enhance employee engagement and transform their mental health by providing support in that covers financial products, technical platforms, education and coaching. If you’d like to have a conversation, please get in touch by emailing Charlie.goodman@ebc-llp.com.

Currently a Partner at the Employee Benefits Collective LLP, Charlie Goodman specialises in financial wellbeing in the workplace. He is a qualified IFA, Financial Coach, and Reward Specialist.

Charlie is a Board member at the Institute for Financial Wellbeing and leads the IFW’s Workplace Financial Wellbeing offering. Join the Institute for Financial Wellbeing.

At 9am on Thursday 15th December, Charlie joined Lorraine McFall to talk about Workplace Financial Wellbeing at the monthly online Forum for Coaches & Planners. Look out for future events like this.