Financial wellbeing has become an urgent priority 

Our report provides insights into how employers are supporting their people's financial wellness.

Workplace wellbeing is an important focus for most organisations. However, despite evidence of the interconnections between financial wellness and mental, physical and social wellbeing, many organisations are only now developing dedicated financial wellbeing programmes for their employees.

With many people in all organisations’ workforces impacted by the unfolding cost of living crisis, the need for a renewed focus on supporting employees’ financial wellbeing has never been greater. Helping your people manage their finances will boost morale, reduce stress and increase productivity.

We created the Mercer Financial Wellbeing Index to help organisations understand where they are when it comes to financial wellness and how best to focus their energy and resources to develop their own programmes.

Based on the information the Index has produced, we have published the Financial Wellbeing Report to provide insights into what is improving, what needs to get better and what actions can support your employees’ financial wellness.

Below are some of the key findings — and you can download the full report, based on information from more than 140 organisations.

More employers use a financial wellness strategy — and strategy counts

The proportion of organisations with a financial wellbeing strategy has more than doubled in five years to 36% in 2021 from 15% when Mercer last asked employers about this subject. Encouragingly, another 37% of employers are planning to develop a strategy, suggesting there may be 73% participation by 2024.
Increasing proportion of organisations with a financial wellbeing strategy
Graphic showing the  proportion of organisations with a financial wellbeing strategy in 2016 was 15%. By 2021 that proportion was 36% and by 2024 could be 73%
There is a wide gap between employers that have started to develop more effective financial wellbeing programmes based on a clear strategy and those that have not acted strategically and whose programmes still have room for improvement. Overall, those with a clear financial wellness strategy had programmes that scored 30% higher than those without a strategy.

On a scale of 0 to 100

48

Overall average FW Index rating

44

Without strategy

57

With strategy

The cost of living crisis has underscored the importance of financial wellness at work — but many employers still have a long way to go. Our Financial Wellbeing Report provides insights into organisations’ financial wellbeing programmes and what actions can best support your employees’ financial health.

Financial Wellbeing Report

Workplace wellbeing is an important focus for most organisations. However, despite evidence of the interconnections between financial wellness and mental, physical and social wellbeing, many organisations are only now developing dedicated financial wellbeing programmes for their employees.
Download now

Retirement is still the focus for financial wellness programmes

Across the board, the scores for “on track for the future” were higher than scores for supporting employees with shorter-term financial wellness needs. “Control over the day to day”, “prepared for the unexpected” and “freedom to make choices in life” lag behind the “on track” ratings due to the established and more developed focus on retirement savings.
Financial Wellbeing index scores across day to day, prepared, freedom and on track elements

Chart showing the middle 50% of companies, the 10th to 90th percentile and the average scores for organisations across the four elements – control over the day to day, prepared for the unexpected, freedom to make choices in life and on track for the future – of financial wellbeing index. Minimum score is 0, maximum score is 100.

For control over the day to day, the score for the middle 50 % of organisations was aa 28 to bb 50, the 10th percentile was cc 23.8 and the 90th percentile was dd 64. The average score was 40.

For prepared for the unexpected, the score for the middle 50 % of organisations was aa 39 to bb 58, the 10th percentile was cc 39 and the 90th percentile was dd 65. The average score was 48.

For freedom to make choices in life, the score for the middle 50 % of organisations was aa 30 to bb  51, the 10th percentile was cc 20 and the 90th percentile was dd 62. The average score was 41.

For on track for the future, the score for the middle 50 % of organisations was aa 51 to bb 76, the 10th percentile was cc 38 and the 90th percentile was dd 86. The average score was 62.

Listening is important — but employers are not doing it enough

When it comes to financial wellbeing, nearly two-thirds of organisations do not even know how their employees are managing financially. In addition, 86% have not collected any data on the financial wellness needs of their employees.
14%

Only 14% of employers have collected data on the financial wellbeing of their employees

63%

Do not know how their employees are faring

Actions speak louder than words for all

Cohesive commitment, strategy and action are essential to building a financial wellbeing programme that truly makes a difference in your employees’ lives. All organisations already have many of the potential ingredients to create a highly rated financial wellness programme. So building a more cohesive and comprehensive programme is possible, and having a functional and clearly articulated strategy demonstrably increases the likelihood of success — and ultimately supports employees more effectively.
Financial wellbeing index scores for schemes with and without a financial wellbeing strategy
Chart comparing financial wellbeing index scores, across four elements, for organisations with and without a financial wellbeing strategy. For the control over the day to day element of financial wellbeing, organisations with a strategy have an average score of 50%, those without 35%. For the prepared for the unexpected element, those with a strategy received and average score of 55%, those without scored 45%. For the freedom to make choices in life element the scores were 53% with a strategy and 35% without. And for the on track for the future element, with a financial wellbeing strategy scored 70%, without 59%

Take the Index now to see how your organisation compares

The Financial Wellbeing Index is a free online tool that provides HR, reward, and benefits professional with insights to support their people. The assessment takes no more than 15 minutes and you will instantly receive a digital report that scores your organisation’s financial wellness support.
Take the Mercer Financial Wellbeing Index

    Contributor
    Emma Roberts
    Related products for purchase
    Related solutions
    Related insights
    Related case studies
    Curated
    Mercer Financial Wellbeing Report
    Mercer Financial Wellbeing Report
    Mercer Financial Wellbeing Report
    Mercer Financial Wellbeing Report

    Other content you might be interested in

      Download the report

      Find out about the current state of employers’ financial wellbeing programmes and gain insights into how you can support your people.

      Talk to us

      |
      To find out more about our financial wellbeing solution.
      |
      Get in touch