Money Matters: Re-Focussing Workplace Financial Wellbeing for 2025.

Since the last month's edition of this newsletter, you may have seen I now run a weekly Employee Benefits newsletter too. There is so much going on in the benefits space I felt it needed its own place and I also wanted to share some of the amazing real Benifex data we have available with you. You can sign up to that weekly digest of news, research and data here:

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Financial Wellbeing in 2025

If you look at recent election results in the UK and the US, the state of the economy was the top of the list in most places (even outstripping migration!). People are continuing to feel the pinch and their lives aren't where they mostly think they should be. And they'd be right - we're all about 20% worse of that we should be at this point.

Our money situation plays a significant role in our overall health and wellbeing. In fact, the level of physical pain felt generally by people in a country is directly related to the state of its economy. That's pretty intense! So this newsletter will focus on how employee financial wellbeing can actually help us prop up the finances of the company that supports us.

Higher wellbeing equals higher customer satisfaction (and sales)

There is a 1:1 ratio between employee NPS score and Customer NPS score. The more we can help people to be happier and healthier, the better our customer loyalty gets. We talk a lot about wellbeing being part of good business, but often the C Suite and the decision makers are quite far removed from stats like these. they don't see the intricate and direct links between what they want to achieve (usually higher sales or better service) with employee wellbeing. The friction being chased by "Return to Office (RTO)" mandates is often not that much to do with where someone works, but far more to do with employees feeling annoyed that their leaders are completely ignoring their needs. We often make big, bold company decisions with little to no consideration for the people who sit at the end of that decision. Rarely a moments pause to ask "how will this affect my people and their lives?". That is a mistake in my view and the evidence agrees with me.

Let's just look at revenue generating activity (almost always something a CEO wants to do more of). We can link high wellbeing with sales performance. This is critical because the evidence tells us that almost half of salespeople struggle with their mental health on a regular basis. Again we know that when a workplace designs activities to improve the wellbeing of their sales team, this boosts sales performance. As I've said time and time again, wellbeing comes first - it drives the outcomes we want to see. So could a more focussed commitment to workplace financial wellbeing actually help us to drive more sales?

Boosting savings to boost wellbeing in 2025

Financial wellbeing correlates with overall wellbeing in several intricate and compelling ways. The size of an employee’s savings account being a big contributor to overall wellbeing. This year employers should look at ways to encourage their employees to save money on everyday spending in order to build up important reserves. The evidence shows us very clearly that savings (of any size) play a key positive role in fostering healthier and happier workforces.

When employers are able to support their people to build bigger savings pots, the impact on them can reach far beyond individual wellbeing improvements. We even have evidence that family life gets better with even small increases in savings accounts.

Employees who save money tend to have better quality sleep. One study examined people over a ten-year period and found that the more they saved and the more regularly they saved, the lower their financial anxiety and the better their sleep. Even saving small amounts has a positive impact on sleep.

YouGov found that those with less than ￡1000 in savings were almost three times more likely to feel they have poor mental health compared with those with more than ￡1000. And 75% of Brits say that having a savings account of ￡1000 would make them happier than spending ￡1000. In 2024 user spending through Benifex 's OneHub Discounts gift cards and affiliate offers reached ￡25 million+. We estimate that we saved employees more than one million pounds!

Taking care of yourself is often the hardest part

I've made a career in recent years of telling the world how they should be taking care of their wellbeing and all that time I think I've been failing myself. I think (and hope) I am a high performer and I hope it's clear that I do all I can to make the workplace a better place to be.

I've had an incredibly busy start to the year and 2024 was the same. But the toll of trying to change the world, manage a team, be a high performer and also be there for my family and friends has been too much. I got some kind of flu back in December that stayed with me well into January. Then before I recovered from that, I got tonsillitis. And for the next 4 weeks had some kind of flu again. I've literally been ill for two months. Its never happened before and is a wake up call for me.

I find myself this week jumping from one customer call to another, helping to solve problems, seeing things that need fixing and jumping into fix them. I also try to do everything I can and take the speaking opportunities and podcast interviews that come along, knowing any influence I have in this space may not last forever. Then in between work calls and meetings, I'm dealing with my dad asking me for help as he cant cope looking after my mum and I have to negotiate with the complex and stressful social services system in the UK. I don't know how people with kids deal with this and I don't know how much more I have in me to give to the pursuit I've been on for so many years.

I find myself asking the question how important is this pursuit to create better workplaces?

Could I just become a solid performer at work instead? Leave work at the door, give exactly what is expected of me and no more? Could I become that person? Could I physically and mentally withdraw from something I'm so passionate about? Probably not, so the pursuit has to remain worthwhile, and for me that means being reminded that the effort and stress is worth it. That the pro-bono university work, the pro-non government work, this newsletter and the HR magazines I write for are all worth it. That the overarching mission I am on is one worth caring about and worth sacrificing so much for.

I end this newsletter with these thoughts because I get frustrated that people think my role at Benifex and in the industry is easy. That I rock up to events and speak. The most annoying message I get is "how can I do what you do?". I'll tell you how you get here - you care too much, your sacrifice a lot and you work hard for two decades. Then if you can also write a few books and they do well, that helps.

This is not an easy job. This is not an easy pursuit I'm on. I'm finding it more difficult to do this work than I ever have, and clearly have something thinking still to do on this. But please don't distill my work to that of some "influencer" chasing likes. It's not an easy role I do, you probably don't want it. I struggle to disconnect from work at the weekends as I've made this job so much of how I identify as a person.

However, I'm not sure it's in me to step away - I think I'm in too deep and I think I care too much. But I wanted to be clear with you all that this isn't easy. But when you like and share, when you comment on my posts with encouragement it remains a reminder that it's a worth while pursuit. It's almost like being cheered on from the sidelines. So if you're clapping, thank you. It never goes unnoticed and it keeps me going. If you're a customer that thanks me for helping you or challenging you, it keeps me going.

We all need to be reminded that what we are doing is worthwhile. To be recognised for the effort and to be cheered on. After all, what would a gig be like if the room was quiet and nobody clapped?