Covid-19 and financial wellbeing – A webinar for UK employers

Catherine Lockyer discusses First Actuarial’s financial wellbeing webinar, which is freely available to all UK employers and their staff. The webinar’s practical tips from financial experts are a real hit with employers and employees alike.

Three months into lockdown, we have grieved the loss of our familiar way of life and adjusted our daily routines as the pandemic loses some of its initial weirdness. But for many people, change and uncertainties around what the future might bring are deeply unsettling. And financial insecurity can be a big part of that.

First Actuarial has produced a webinar to help the UK workforce take control of its finances during this challenging time. It’s freely available to all UK employers, who can then distribute it to their staff as they see fit.

The webinar came about when we were talking with our financial wellbeing clients. At the start of the pandemic, they were all keen to support employees in any way possible. Communications were becoming challenging as staff started working from home, and they felt that their employees needed an extra layer of support.

The webinars we delivered to our clients were well received and gave us food for thought. We realised that among the company-specific guidance we provided, such as pension and investment information, there was a lot of general content that would apply to any organisation.

As a result, we have produced a 35-minute webinar, available to all UK employers, with practical tips on how to cope with the current situation from our financial experts, in areas such as:

– Updating the household budget
– Managing pensions and savings
– Coping with financial difficulty
– Avoiding money scams.

The webinar also points to useful sources that can help people manage their physical and mental health.

Feedback on our financial wellbeing seminar

The webinar has been available for over a month now, so we have a clear view of how employers have received it. One HR professional described it as the best half-hour webinar she had ever attended. Others told us that the webinar was useful and practical, and saw that it would help people feel calmer about the life changes they were going through.
A number of HR and Reward professionals reported back that they felt in control of the webinar. Rather than First Actuarial having a separate communication channel with their staff, HR themselves would share it across the organisation. They could choose whether to send it to all staff, or to certain groups of the workforce who would find it particularly helpful. Or they could send it to their HR director in the first instance, to get their view.

Delivering bespoke wellbeing webinars

Once employers have circulated the generic webinar, which is free of charge, many see the value of a bespoke version, which includes organisation-specific information.
Unlike the generic webinar, which is a recording, the bespoke version can be delivered live. Our specialists work with the employer to provide tailored guidance. The employer chooses which areas to cover. These can include:

– Specific how-to guidance on your organisation’s pension scheme, including investment fund options and death benefit forms
– Life assurance policies, and how to update them
– Employee share schemes and other savings opportunities
– Employee Assistance Programmes.

We pitch each area of the webinar at the right level of detail for the employee audience, again, as agreed with the employer.

We provide a live Q&A panel during the webinar itself. We can also put in place one-to-one web chat facilities to help employees address any sensitive issues. Attendees receive a handout and can consult the recording after the event, either in full or in topic-based sections.

In week 11 of lockdown, 350 employees from one organisation attended bespoke webinars we provided. Issues around financial wellbeing and control are clearly as important today as they were at the start of the pandemic.

Planning future financial wellbeing webinars

In conversation with HR and Reward departments about financial wellbeing, and from feedback on this webinar, we’re learning more and more about what people need.

Our Covid-19 and Financial Wellbeing webinar raises the importance of understanding where your money goes, which has led a lot of people to want to learn more. We know that many people really need help in working out how to budget their money. And even if they feel they already know a bit about it, they still enjoy checking that they’re doing it right. And at the same time, they may pick up a new tip or two.

So we can expect our Covid-19 financial wellbeing webinar to be the start of a bigger area of our work, even as life starts to return to normal.

Find out more about our Covid-19 wellbeing webinar

Find out more about our webinar and register to watch and share it, on our Covid-19 financial wellbeing webinar page.

Any questions or comments about this article?

Get in touch with the author, Catherine Lockyer.

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