Financial well-being for satisfied work force

 

Financial health became an important point of organizational well-being programs. The focus on financial well-being has grown significantly in recent times (Bailey 2019). Finance well-being includes employee’s ability to meet their daily finance requirements, ability to absorb finance shock, ability to achieve finance goals and financial independence to make the decisions that enable one to enjoy life.

Unpredicted global challenges have emerged in recent years such as COVID-19 pandemic and conflict in Ukraine, followed by sharp price increases caused by issues with the world's supply chains. The overall effect has had an influence on households in Sri Lanka as well as across the world.

Organizations can offer their staff financial well-being support in various ways, which helps reduce cost-of-living worries. Not all forms of help must be expensive.

According to CIPD (2022), Organizations can implement practices and policies to increase employees’ financial well-being. such as,

01.  Review reward schemes – Necessary review and upgrade of reward policies are vital. ex: cost of living allowance.

02.  Implement financial wellbeing policy – Organization can assist financially for the sake of employee well-being such as providing interest-free distress loans, gift vouchers for festive seasons, and paid vacations for employees.

03.  Upgrade benefits packages - Upgrade medical insurance policy and mobile package

04.  Consider the legal implications – Allow employees to work part-time if needed.

05.  Educate team leaders – Educate leaders on how to provide the right support to staff at the right time.

06.  Empower employees – Include employees in decision-making to feel that they are too involved.

07.  Build a proper communication strategy – Employees can communicate with employers at any time to convey their message and expectations. For that proper communication channels should be exist

Living standards are being severely impacted by the current crisis in Sri Lanka because of the rising costs of living. This has an impact on both companies and employees. Employers will restrict the assistance they give to workers due to the rising costs of organizational revenue. This will have a negative impact on Sri Lanka's labor force's financial well-being, which will lead to decreasing organizational performance and productivity as well as overall national production.

(Central bank of Sri Lanka, 2023)

Above graph reflects the current inflation level in Sri Lanka and more support is needed for bottom-level employees as they use a huge portion of their salary as household expenses. Therefore, more involvement from the organizational level is important to overcome issues and to achieve organizational goals with a satisfied workforce.

                                                                                                                                    source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCDf1lZObNU

Reference:

Bailey SM. (2019), Financial Well-Being: An Opportunity to Have Profound Impact With Solutions That Match Needs. American Journal of Health Promotion. 2019;33(1):147-151. doi:10.1177/0890117118812822b

Central Bank of Sri Lanka (2023), Consumer Price Inflation, Available at : https://www.cbsl.gov.lk/en/measures-of-consumer-price-inflation (Accessed: 14 April 2023)

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (2022) Cost of living crisis: How to help your employees,. Available at: https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/culture/well-being/cost-living-crisis (Accessed: 14 April 2023)