EXCLUSIVE: Delegates at Employee Benefits Connect 2018 will be able to learn about the importance of creating a savings culture in order to support employees with their financial wellbeing and monetary goals.
Jeanette Makings (pictured), head of financial education services at Close Brothers Asset Management, and Simon Williams, senior financial planner at Close Brothers Asset Management, will jointly present a session titled ‘Creating a savings culture and empowering your people for the future’ as part of the talent conference stream on Wednesday 28 February 2018.
The session will demonstrate the value of creating a savings culture within an organisation, citing advantages for both employers and their employees. These could include improved staff retention and engagement, as well as increased productivity and a reduction in employee financial stress and absenteeism.
Makings and Williams will use research statistics to explore the current employee stance on savings, pinpointing various savings gaps and challenges that employers should be aware of, such as the savings gap between men and women or the savings gap between employees starting their careers and those who are near retirement.
Makings and Williams will go on to discuss what employers can do to enable and empower a savings culture within their organisation in order to help employees improve their financial future. This will include looking at how to generate a better return on investment for the benefits provision that employers already have in place, for example utilising existing modelling tools better or promoting an annual benefits statement. Makings and Williams will also demonstrate the role of communications, which can work to inspire employees to make financial decisions at appropriate times.
Williams will additionally use his background as a financial planner to showcase some key ways that employees can improve their savings and positively impact on their finances without increasing the amount that they physically save.
Makings said: “[The session is] looking at the future if [employers] don’t change anything, and the future if [employers] do change some things; how [they] can intervene today to make a better future happen. What [employers can] do to really empower a savings culture within their organisation.
“[Employers] are looking to ensure that they get more productivity out of their employees to release the capability within their people populations. They’re looking therefore at ways in which they can do things around financial wellbeing, around things like better return on investment for their benefits spend. For employers to get the best out of [employees], they recognise that they’re having to put more in place to help them with [financial] decisions.
“Employers are in a fantastic position to reach a large number of people, and also they’re in a fantastic position because they provide the wherewithal for the vast majority of people to improve their financial wellbeing, to help them through that savings culture. The employer is in a pivotal role to really cause that sea change and to make the future better and the future different for their business and also for the employees that work with them.”
Williams added: “This is actually about saying ‘well look, you’ve got all the tools available to you now, if you just use them in the right order, in the right place, you can make a massive impact on your future.’ [Employees] probably have most of the components there already; it’s just trying to remove a lot of the bad behaviours and emotion that people bring when it comes to making their savings.”
Employee Benefits Connect 2018 will take place on Wednesday 28 February 2018 at Park Plaza, Westminster, London.