That said, throughout recent years there are indications that employees are not just ‘ready for a change’ – other factors could be driving their decision to switch jobs.
Driving factors for employees
Prior to the pandemic, many businesses assumed that workplace benefits such as gym membership, free food, or casual Fridays were enough to keep members of staff satisfied in their current role. And indeed, this strategy may have been successful prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Today, however, the needs of employees have become far more nuanced. Employees face a new set of challenges and anxieties, which will certainly have an impact on their job satisfaction and overall wellness. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, they revolve around their personal finances.
From skyrocketing inflation and soaring energy prices to endless market volatility, it appears household finances are being placed under unprecedented pressure. Indeed, a recent Mintago survey among 1,212 UK adults in full time employment found almost a quarter (23 per cent) of respondents claim that concerns about their financial situation is having a negative impact on their job performance.
Such figures indicate that finances could play a leading role in their decision to move jobs. This is perhaps to be expected, given that many employees are currently feeling that they have less money to spend and save.
Of course, it may not be possible for all businesses, which are also feeling a great deal of financial pressure due to inflation, national insurance hikes, and rising energy prices to commit to raising the salary of all members of staff. However, there could be other cost-effective ways they could help their staff to address their financial concerns, and consequently, improve their retention rates.
An active role in finances
Of course, it is the role of any financial adviser to help their business-owning clients to aid the financial management of their organisations – they would be forgiven for assuming employee wellbeing does not fall into their remit. That said, there are financial mechanisms and tools that could improve the financial stability of an organisation, while improving staff retention rates.
If, as some research suggests, employees are increasingly concerned about their finances, surely it is within the interest of business leaders to help their employees better understand and manage their financial situation.
Advisers should therefore make business-owning clients aware of the various options within which they could do this. A strong starting point would be to help employees better understand their workplace pension.
And there are tools available to help their clients achieve this, which will give them access to all the information necessary to help them make informed decisions about their finances.
In doing so, they would be able to explore pension options such as the government-backed salary sacrifice pension scheme, an option that will help employees to save more for retirement while enabling an advisers’ business-owning client to benefit from a smaller national insurance tax bill.
