'Employees who are struggling financially are more likely to be absent from work due to health issues'
While businesses been focusing a lot on mental health and wellbeing, money has been the leading cause of stress for many Australians.
In 2021, 30% of Australians reported living pay cheque to pay cheque, according to Onesto. In addition, around 50% didn’t have $500 for an emergency and 60% didn’t think they could ever achieve financial security.
With a tough economic environment, employers can’t always solve this issue by providing pay rises for all their workers. But there are still ways they can support their employee’s financial wellbeing, whether it is through financial mentorship, help generating savings or wage flexibility. Such efforts can improve employee satisfaction.
Changing job expectations
The expectations of a job have evolved over the years from just being a pay cheque to playing a significant role in who we are, Sandra Matz, associate professor of business at Columbia Business School, said.
“If you look at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, we used to expect our jobs to fulfil the basic needs – putting food on the table and providing basic forms of security and safety,” Matz says.
“But those days are long gone, and today we expect a lot more from our employers. We don’t only expect them to fulfil our psychological needs like belonging and esteem, we also expect them to go all the way up to the top of the hierarchy – to help us become the best versions of ourselves and achieve our full potential.”
Australia is seeing its highest job vacancy rate since 1970 and if employers aren’t offering adequate support, workers have no trouble going elsewhere. Some industries have reported turnover rates of 57.3%.
Supporting financial wellbeing
Financial wellbeing platform Onesto has more than 100 course to help employees accumulate savings, access wage flexibility and gain financial education.
Since financial wellbeing is closely tied to other forms of wellbeing, including physical and mental health, it’s an important factor for employers to consider if they want to improve turnover rates.
“Employees who are struggling financially are more likely to be absent from work due to health issues,” Matz said.
“Imagine not sleeping for a night – that’s the equivalent of 15 IQ points or experiencing financial distress. Having to worry about your finances hijacks mental bandwidth, which would be much better spent elsewhere, inside or outside of the workplace.”
