Wagestream recognises desire for financial wellbeing support

Wagestream has released its Australian State of Employee Financial Wellbeing Report 2022. The report identifies the divide between staff and employers in regard to financial wellbeing support.

Wagestream Australia CEO, Josh Vernon outlined the concept: “Financial wellbeing occurs when an individual can meet their current commitments and needs comfortably and has the financial resilience to maintain this in the future.”

The report notes that 84 per cent of HR leaders recognised that employee mental health was impacted by poor financial wellbeing. However, only 58 per cent provide information to assist employees and just 33 per cent have a financial wellbeing plan.

Mr Vernon said: “If every employee in Australia was experiencing financial wellbeing right now, we would have a significantly happier and healthier, and far more engaged and productive labour force.”

He continued: “Yet our State of Financial Wellbeing Report reveals that employers in Australia are not taking advantage of the huge opportunity to boost their employees’ financial wellbeing through a range of readily-available resources and tools. Despite a majority of HR professionals knowing employees need more help in this regard, the data shows that only a tiny minority are planning or able to roll out a financial wellbeing program in the next year.”

The report revealed that 58 per cent of employers believe they offer assistance in financial wellbeing. However, just 36 per cent of employees agree. Half of the respondents said they’d “be more likely to stay with my employer” if their workplace offered financial wellbeing support.

Mr Vernon said: “Employers who take the financial wellbeing of their staff seriously see great reward - roughly one in two employees would think more favourably of their employer or even stay with their employer if they offered financial wellbeing tools.”

“The current tight employment market makes this even more critical given employers are competing heavily to attract, recruit, and retain high quality staff,” he added.

The research revealed that women are worse off than men, as they were less likely to have $500 for an emergency. However, women were six per cent more likely to pay bills on time compared to men.

Michael Joyce, acting head of financial inclusion action plans at Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand commented on the data: “Cost of living pressures and financial stress are rising, meaning that people in Australia are finding it hard to manage their daily expenses and save for the future, particularly lower income earners.”

He continued: “We believe that employers have a significant role to play in increasing the financial wellbeing of their people, and it is our hope that this major study will help employers identify ways they can work towards a safer and more inclusive community."

Employees have ideas on how organisations can provide financial wellbeing support. 76 per cent believe a money managing course would be beneficial, and 83 per cent would like a system that will automatically transfer savings from their pay.

Wagestream is a financial tech company. The Australian State of Employee Financial Wellbeing Report 2022 used Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand’s research. 1,004 staff, and 496 HR professionals from different industries and various-sized companies were surveyed.