Creating a corporate culture that promotes financial health

Financial pressures have increased dramatically over the last year. Between the delays in government assistance and added expenses due to the pandemic, your employees’ and co-workers’ financial burdens have grown.

Read more: UBS stresses the importance of financial wellness benefits during COVID-19

According to Fortune, 83% of Americans are worried about their long-term finances, and 80% are concerned about their short-term financial situation. That’s quite a mental burden for the vast majority of your workforce.

Fortunately, some companies are proactively dismantling the culture of shame and silence around money. They’re taking action and seeing the benefits of higher-performing, more focused, and loyal employees. Your company can do this too. Here are three things your business can do to break the taboo around money talk.

Have leaders talk money, especially money mishaps
No one likes to admit their ignorance or shortcomings around anything, much less finances. But to find out that the CEO or executive officers of your company struggled too? It’s a huge relief.

I regularly share my history of financial struggle with both our customers and our employees. My finances were a mess after my divorce. I was completely overwhelmed. My credit was wrecked, I couldn’t get approved for an apartment, and I considered living in my car. My lack of financial know-how put me at a significant disadvantage.

You don’t have to have an epic financial disaster to share with your employees. It can be as simple as “I had no idea why I needed to invest in my 401(k) — so I just ignored it for years. I missed out on saving during those valuable early years.” Those stories have an impact. They can spark genuine conversations with employees about real-life financial mishaps and help colleagues avoid making the same mistakes.

Create a culture that supports financial health and wellbeing
At Accenture, employees from all walks of life are invited to share their wealth-building strategies and mistakes through private webinars with their colleagues. It’s all part of an employee resource group called Wealth Creation.

“Over the last few years, we’ve seen an exponential increase in the desire for candid conversations around money,” said Tina Kuo, Co-Lead of Wealth Creation at Accenture. “We all want to know the secret, and people are becoming more open and transparent in sharing how they’re managing their money — especially the leaders in our organizations.”

The group has been instrumental in combating money shame and building a culture of financial health at Accenture.

Provide a financial safety net for all employees
It’s so much easier to start having real conversations about money if you have a solid resource you can direct your employees to tap into if an unexpected expense or financial issue surfaces.

One option is to provide an emergency grant program. In April 2020, Starbucks announced a $10 million commitment to establish the Starbucks Global Partner Emergency Relief Program. These one-time, direct relief grants were made available to partners facing extreme hardship as a result of COVID-19. Another option is to provide an employee financial wellness program to help employees manage unexpected expenses or reduced household income. At HoneyBee, we provide rainy day coverage where employees get access to no-cost, interest-free emergency funds and on-demand financial coaching.

Whatever you do, don’t ignore the financial stress of your workforce. It’s time for leaders everywhere to start talking about money and creating a culture of financial health and well-being in their organization. Let’s do it together.