Staff want financial education from employers, but few have access

The vast majority of employees believe they would benefit from financial education and guidance from their employers, but only a third have access to it, according to new data.

The data, sourced by the global employee pay company CloudPay, revealed that 91% of employees believe that they or their colleagues would benefit from employer-led financial education, support and advice, however, only 34% currently have access to it.

CloudPay’s data also showed that the number of people using Earned Wage Access (EWA) to pay for household bills grew between January and July 2023, highlighting the ongoing challenges that many are facing due to the cost-of-living crisis and other inflationary pressures. Employers are being encouraged to modernise pay and payroll processes in order to better support their staff in light of the challenges many are facing in the current economic climate.

Judith Lamb, Vice President of Global HR at CloudPay, said. “It’s no secret that many people are facing significant difficulties managing their finances in the challenging conditions that we’re currently experiencing. However, it’s also clear that staff are looking for additional financial education from their employers to help them navigate this tough period. There’s very little resource for education around money management in the UK school system and the onus is falling on employers to provide information that can help professionals to tackle conditions that they have never faced before.”

“Providing this sort of education isn’t only just the right thing to do, it can also prevent staff attrition levels rising as employees move to source better pay. Few organisations can afford to continue offering higher salaries at the moment, but providing education around how employees can better manage their available resources can help salaries to go further. The onus is on employers to lead this charge as there’s currently a major gap in the market for this sort of expertise. Being able to access earned wages as and when they are needed can obviously provide a huge helping hand, however, there’s clearly a demand for greater degrees of financial education on top of this.”