Expert highlights importance of convincing management about impact of workers' financial wellbeing
Money is tops among workers’ priorities. And while not every employer can just drop loads of cash on their workers, they can still do a lot to help their employees’ financial wellbeing, according to one expert.
The first step is convincing management why it’s important for the company to care for workers’ financial wellness, says Kelley Keehn, founder of Money Wise Workplaces.
“There's been a number of reports showing that over 25% of an employees’ time is spent worrying on the job about finances, that it's costing the our economy over $50 billion. So there's certainly an ROI case,” she says in an episode of HRDTV’s Thought Leaders series.
The number of Canadians who are struggling financially today is bigger than the comparable data recorded when the COVID-19 pandemic was still ongoing, according to a report from Statistics Canada (StatCan).
There’s also the case to be made for employers taking care of their employees, says Keehn.
And when it comes to actually putting up a financial wellness program, it’s important that employers don’t sell workers anything, she says.
“I've done a lot of work with the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPCA), and their studies really show that it kind of backfires if the financial wellness program or financial literacy programs are promoting a bank or financial planner or something of that sort.”
