While the vast majority of employers say they encourage their staff to talk about their financial worries, half of employees have failed to so.
This is according to Aviva’s Working Lives Report 2024 which surveyed more than 1,000 employees and more than 200 firms. The report found 76% of firms polled encourage employees to talk about their financial concerns.
And while just over one in five (21%) do not actively encourage it, this was down from 34% last year.
While almost three-quarters of employees (73%) said the cost-of-living crisis had made them feel more anxious about their finances, half of employers (56%) thought their employees were worried about their financial wellbeing.
The research found that in order to cope with feelings of anxiety about their finances, almost half of employees (49%) talked to friends or family, one in five (20%) tried not think about their finances, 14% did not have any coping mechanisms and just 6% talked to colleagues or a manager and 6% talk to a financial adviser.
Younger people were more likely to talk about their financial concerns, whereas older people were more likely to not have any coping mechanisms.
Half of employees (50%) had not talked to their current employer or line manager about their financial wellbeing, up from 43% last year.
Once again, younger people are were more likely to have opened up and talked to their employer or line manager about their financial wellbeing.
Over three-quarters (77%) of employers believed financial wellbeing programmes were important for employee retention and satisfaction.
However, almost two-thirds (63%) of employees said their employers did not provide tailored support which would help to improve their financial wellbeing.
Most of those (62%) said they would like their employer to provide this kind of tailored support.
