EXCLUSIVE: Energy organisation SSE has extended its online financial education programme to 1,000 employees working in Ireland.
SSE originally launched its financial education programme, provided by Nudge, in January 2018 for 20,000 employees working across its 150 UK operating sites.
The extended provision was launched in Ireland on 1 March 2019, featuring country-specific content and benchmarking data relevant for Irish employees.
Sandra Shipley, benefits manager at SSE, said: “We’re delighted to be the first of the utility [organisations] to offer personalised financial wellness support to our people in Ireland. It’s important to us to have a consistent approach to health and wellness across the UK and Ireland, and to offer our people the support they need to make managing their money simpler.
“With the introduction of auto-enrolment to Ireland in 2022, the need to actively engage people in improving their own financial wellness is heightened, and the adoption of financial education amongst leading Irish employers is set to grow.”
The programme enables Irish employees to access a personalised platform, which provides financial education posts and action plans to support employees’ financial dreams and goals.
Staff also receive tailored communications or nudges via email, SMS or WhatsApp that offer tips, guidance and actions that are in line with employees’ lifestyles, local legislative updates or organisational changes.
The initiative was communicated to Irish employees using an email campaign; this was supported by content on its staff intranet, called ssenet, and by communications sent via its internal app, sseapp. This ensures that employees who are not office-based are still kept informed.
Shipley added: “A year ago, we introduced financial education for our UK people as part of our wider wellness strategy. We’re delighted with the high engagement that we’ve seen with Nudge and the way that the personalised experience appeals to all our employees regardless of age, wealth or lifestyle.
“As a reward team, it also gives us access to rich data and insight about our people’s interests and financial goals, so that we can better shape our reward strategy and communications.”