Providing financial literacy education to employees increases their financial wellbeing, and reduces employer costs associated with financially stressed employees.
Our financial planners can deliver on-site financial literacy workshops in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, and via live online training anywhere in the Asia Pacific region.
While many employers provide employee wellbeing programs, very few of those programs have included financial literacy training, but that’s now changing, following the widespread economic hardship caused by the COVID pandemic. Governments around the world commissioned studies, which identified that financial literacy can improve financial wellbeing, and alerted employers to the benefits of providing financial education for their employees.
Financial Literacy Training For Your Employees
Employers can either choose:
- our The 5 Key Steps to Financial Wellbeing training session, or
- tailor a custom financial literacy workshop to suit your needs.
The 5 Key Steps to Financial Wellbeing
This session covers the 5 essential areas that employees need to be educated on to improve their financial literacy and reduce their financial stress:
- Importance of Money as Security for You and Your Family:
This fundamental concept emphasises the role of financial stability in providing security to individuals and their families. It’s a strong starting point. - Effective Money Management:
Effective cashflow management is crucial for personal financial stability and is essential to teach individuals how to budget, save, and manage their day-to-day finances. - Managing Debt – Understanding the Options and Good vs. Bad Debt:
Debt management is critical. Teaching participants about the types of debt, interest rates, and strategies to reduce or eliminate debt is valuable. - The Different Asset Classes:
This key provides valuable knowledge about investment options. Individuals will learn about asset classes (e.g., stocks, bonds, real estate) and risk-return profiles. - Using Super More Effectively:
Preparing for retirement, especially in the context of superannuation (Australia’s retirement savings system), is crucial for long-term financial security.
A Custom Financial Literacy Workshop
We can adjust The 5 Key Steps to Financial Wellbeing workshop by adding or removing topics to suit your particular requirements. Among the additional topics that we can add are:
- Managing Special Occasion Spending:
This topic provides practical tips and strategies for managing expenses during peak spending times such as Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries, and Valentine’s Day. It can cover aspects like creating a holiday budget, gift-giving strategies, and finding meaningful ways to celebrate without overspending. - Adapting to Financial Changes Post the Pandemic:
Understanding how people’s spending and financial habits have shifted during the pandemic is crucial. This topic can delve into the changes in consumer behaviour, remote work impact, and the importance of emergency funds. It also includes strategies for organising finances during uncertain times, such as building emergency savings and flexible budgeting. - How to Set and Achieve Financial Goals and Track Your Progress:
Setting and achieving financial goals is crucial to financial wellness. It is essential for long-term financial success to teach individuals how to define their goals, create actionable plans, and track their progress.
Our Financial Literacy Trainers
All our financial literacy training is delivered by Financial Planners who will assist your employees to navigate the important topics of money management and wealth while answering any questions they may have.
What Is Financial Wellbeing?
The 2017 report Exploring Financial Wellbeing in the Australian Context conducted by UNSW defined financial wellbeing as:
Financial wellbeing is when a person is able to meet expenses and has some money left over, is in control of their finances and feels financially secure, now and in the future.
An important component of financial wellbeing is feeling and being in control of your finances, but unfortunately many people do not feel in control. The Australian Financial Capability Survey (2021) found that about 50% of people aged 18 to 45 ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ with the statement “Dealing with money is stressful or overwhelming.”
It also found that over 20% of people didn’t carefully consider whether they could afford something before buying it.
Financial Wellbeing and Mental Health
A significant number of employees report that financial hardship is their primary cause of stress.
The Money and Mental Health (2022) report commissioned by ASIC in conjunction with Beyond Blue found that experiencing financial challenges can cause a decline in mental health.
Debt in particular was a problem: having credit card debt, short term/pay day loans, and falling behind on loan payments and bills increased the probability of experiencing mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, and thoughts of suicide.
Costs to Employers of Employee Financial Stress
When employees are financially stressed it impacts on the employer’s profits due to:
- Reduced employee retention because employees are keen to find a higher paying job.
- Reduced productivity due to employees spending time at work worrying about their finances.
- Reduced productivity and increased sick days due to increased mental health conditions, and loss of sleep.
Employers are in a Unique Position to Help Improve Financial Literacy
Unfortunately, there is little financial literacy education in schools, and most people don’t seek it out on their own, and the Money and Mental Health (2022) report found that people who get into financial difficulties tend to delay seeking help until it’s too late because poor handling of finances is seen by society as a personal failing.
This means that employers are uniquely positioned to help their employees, by providing them with financial literacy training before they get themselves into financial difficulty.
Can The Financial Literacy Training Be Run Online?
Yes. We can run live online trainings to anywhere in the Asia Pacific region including New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore.
Contact Us Today
Please contact us on 1300 889 073 or email us to discuss how HSG can deliver financial literacy training for your employees at your premises in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, or via live online video webinar to India, Malaysia, Philippines, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore , New Zealand or anywhere in the Asia Pacific region.
Business Coaching Service
In addition to financial training for employees, we also provide financial training for employers. If you are a business owner and would like some advice from an expert, our business coach can either provide you with training in specific areas, or simply be an experienced advisor that you can bounce ideas off.
Other Corporate Wellness Services
Holistic Service Group provides a comprehensive range of corporate wellness services. Here’s a small selection: