WITH THE increasing pressures of longer working hours, higher stress levels and demands for greater productivity often with less staff, many executives are stretched and struggling to keep on top of their personal lives and finances, according to a national financial planning firm
WITH THE increasing pressures of longer working hours, higher stress levels and demands for greater productivity often with less staff, many executives are stretched and struggling to keep on top of their personal lives and finances, according to a national financial planning firm.
Speaking at a recent American Chamber of Commerce breakfast on employee retention and separation, Paul Gordon, national corporate strategy manager for ipac said that many executives were struggling even with the basics of financial management such as seeing the taxman –“a very reactive piece of work”, he said.
“Key people in your organisation often tend to take work home either mentally or physically, so you’re pushing them hard,” he said.
“They feel as though they’re just working longer for the same amount, and they do come to work with other things on their mind – downshifting, retrenchment, relocating, working long hours and no time for anything.”
As such, it was important to offer key people – often those in succession plans – the right tools to manage their lives and finances, especially in the key money areas of career, family, lifestyle and health, according to Gordon.
“There are many examples about when you personalise financial incentives and add them to somebody’s personal financial strategy, all of a sudden they respond to it,” he said.
“Companies are realising that the take-up rate and enthusiasm for a lot of these incentive schemes is low because of miscommunication or lack of communication.”
Gordon also said there was a socially responsible element to such education, in that companies provide key people with the tools to make the most of the good money paid to them.
“Don’t send them all these messages about super growth and the like, and then leave them coming back to work on a Monday with less people to do the job they were doing 12 months ago,” he said.
Gordon also said that many people facing job transitions struggled with money issues, and that it was important to help rebuild that structure for them as much as possible.
