Charlotte Neal
The cost of living crisis has impacted almost every corner of society, and even with inflation now thankfully far off its 2022 highs, times are still incredibly tough for many of us in the UK. It’s an uncomfortable fact that when you’re dealing with financial stress, your entire life becomes more difficult and your mental health can suffer.
That’s why it’s so important that business and HR leaders recognise the effect the cost of living crisis is having on their workforce, and take steps to help ease this burden.
In this blog, we’ll go through some cost of living strategies for employees that can provide support and relief to your team.
What are cost of living benefits?
Cost of living benefits are provided by organisations to help their employees deal with the ongoing cost of living crisis. They differ from usual employee benefits as, rather than luxuries, they help your team deal with everyday costs and ease financial stress instead.
For example, many businesses will offer benefits that give staff vouchers to their favourite stores, giving them a chance to treat themselves to, say, a new pair of sunglasses or slick new phone they might have their eye on.
Cost of living benefits, on the other hand, will offer your team things like supermarket vouchers, helping them get a bit more out of their weekly food shop. They can also be one-off payments to employees who are struggling to cover bills or even hardship loans to team members who need extra help for a short period.
How do cost of living benefits help employers?
To get the best out of your current employees and position your organisation as an attractive place to work, you need to be doing everything you can to support your team through difficult periods.
By adopting financial wellbeing strategies for the cost of living crisis, you’ll be demonstrating that as an organisation you care about employee mental health, fostering greater loyalty within your workforce.
Not to mention, when employee mental health is under threat, their performance will naturally take a dip as well. By helping your team through difficult periods with a robust cost of living strategy you’ll improve employee engagement and team morale, keeping your workforce focused and productive.
Top financial wellbeing strategies for the cost of living crisis
Here are some of the most effective financial wellbeing strategies for the cost of living crisis you can implement to help your employees and keep them from looking for opportunities elsewhere.
1. Give salary increases and bonus payments where possible
It sounds easy but sometimes the most simple solutions are the most effective! If any of your team have been due a raise for a while, now may be the time to push it through. There’s also no better time to offer bonus payments than when you know your employees are feeling the pinch.
This strategy is sure to improve office morale and offer a boost to your people’s financial wellbeing, however we appreciate it’s not always possible for businesses to provide these in this climate. In fact, there are more cost-effective ways of supporting employees through the cost of living crisis that will have a similar, if not greater, impact on your people’s wellbeing.
2. Set up a salary sacrifice scheme
Salary sacrifice schemes are a great way of helping your employees make their money go further, and should always be part of any cost of living strategy for employers. A salary sacrifice scheme allows your team to ‘spend’ some of their salary before it is taxed, saving them money in the process.
These schemes often take the form of a Cycle to Work scheme or a programme that allows staff to purchase technology and whitegoods whilst spreading the cost over several months. Both of these can be a huge help to anyone under financial pressures, and provide National Insurance savings to the organisation.
3. Promote financial wellbeing
Promoting financial health in your workplace can have a huge impact on your employees’ mental health, positioning your organisation as a place that recognises issues in the lives of your staff and takes steps to help resolve them.
There are some quick and simple actions you can take to promote financial wellbeing, such as signposting to external information centres. You could also take it a step further and create internal resources that can help people with their financial concerns. Perhaps you could have a financial advisor come in for a day, allowing staff to book in slots to speak to them and get first-hand advice on their financial situation?
4. Normalise the conversation around financial wellbeing
Discussing financial health and concerns shouldn’t be taboo or hidden away from the workplace.
As an organisation you can take steps to normalise the conversation around financial wellbeing, fostering an environment where your team face no stigma for speaking openly about their financial hardships or, crucially, asking for help.
By creating this open and judgement-free environment your employees will be more likely to reach out and engage with the other elements of your financial wellbeing strategy.
5. Offer more flexibility around remote working
Most businesses are finding success these days with hybrid working, meaning employees are expected to spend at least part of their working life at the office. While face-to-face working has obvious benefits, business and HR leaders should be aware that commuting does add extra expenses to workers’ lives.
By offering more flexibility around working from home you can help alleviate this financial burden from the shoulders of your employees, helping them save on train fares and lunch costs at a time when every penny counts.
6. Encourage the use of benefits
Now is the time to promote your employee benefits. Make sure everyone knows exactly what you offer and how they can take advantage of it!
We’ve already mentioned that cost of living strategies and benefits differ from normal employee benefits, but that doesn’t mean your team can’t make the most of your regular benefits during a financial tightening. After all, maybe your cinema vouchers can help one of your employees see that new film they thought they were going to miss? So make sure your employees are fully aware of all the benefits you offer.
7. Implement staff discounts
There is no better time to set up an employee discounts scheme than during a cost of living crisis. It will allow your team to save money and treat themselves, helping ease the financial worries and stay out of the red.
Speak to your employees to see what kind of discounts they could make the best use of and add them into your scheme. You can always rearrange your scheme if your team’s priorities and desires change in the future.
To discover more ways in which you can help lighten the load of heightened costs for your people, speak with one of our employee experience experts today.
