As your staff start returning to work from furlough, it’s important to remember that it will not be “business as usual” for a long time.
Unless you’ve been able to implement home-working arrangements, or you’ve topped up the income of your furloughed staff, you need to remember that they have been managing on 80% of their normal income for several months. They may not be feeling the full effects of this quite yet, given the unprecedented interventions of the government and industry regulators, forcing lenders to offer payments holidays on mortgages, personal loans and credit cards however, these payments will need to be made up, and even people who haven’t yet turned to credit may soon find themselves struggling to keep on top of their increased payments.
As companies try to balance the books to keep the companies going, it will mostly be your staff that will bear the brunt of any decisions that will be made. Companies may need to ask staff to defer pay rises, delay bonuses payments, or reduce their working hours in an attempt to find some financial stability.
The biggest mistake that employers can make is to assume that it will be ‘business as usual’ when the workplace opens up. The truth is, there will be no such thing as ‘business as usual’ as the world enters a new normal. When looking after your employees it will be more important than ever to look after the whole person. Many companies have made great strides in looking after the mental, physical and even social wellbeing of their staff, but now, more than ever, it’s also important to look after their financial health as well.
Angel Advance is able to work with employers to integrate its debt advice and support tools into employer intranets and Employee Assistance Programmes. For more information, please contact support@angeladvance.co.uk.
Your staff will be coming back to work with greater money worries than ever – which has been proven to affect mental health, performance, productivity and concentration at work – so providing your staff access to money management advice could help allay a lot of their fears.
