28 Feb 2018

Join the call for employers to ask EAP providers to record financial stress

A call has been made to ask employers and employee assistance providers (EAPs) to make a simple process change that would benefit employees and business: record when employees make contact about financial stress.

Neyber, who issued the call, suggests that employers ask their EAP providers to track employee financial stress calls, and for EAPs to make this simple change in their system.

Monica Kalia, co-founder of Neyber, explained: “Currently, we understand EAPs track when an employee is depressed or anxious, but the employers can’t tell if it’s for financial reasons. Yet making this adjustment gives employers three things: they can far better understand employee issues with better data, then they can fine-tune the wellbeing support they provide and then ultimately understand how well their strategy is working”.

The impacts of poor financial wellbeing are striking for business. According to a nationwide study of 10,000 UK workers and 500 employers, ‘The DNA of Financial Wellbeing 2017’, 48% of workers are borrowing money to meet their basic financial needs. On top of this, 54% of employers say the effect of poor financial wellbeing impacts employee behaviour and 56% say it impacts job performance.

Sally Purbrick, reward director of Anglian Water, added: “At Anglian Water, we have had a hardship loan scheme in place for some time. We’d recognised that we were getting a number of stress related calls, so we worked with our EAP to broaden out the categories to define financially-related stress separately.

“Now, our colleagues can go through Neyber to get an affordable loan, and we still also have a hardship fund. But if they are declined, individuals are reminded that they can go to our EAP for assistance. Managers and employees now feel supported, and know that with our hardship fund, EAP and financial education, they have an offer in place to get them out of financial stress and worry.”

Kalia added: “Factual knowledge of this huge issue could make a significant difference to individuals, the entire workforce and the business, as employers can target the issue and provide support that’s needed today, more than ever.”

This article was supplied by Neyber.