Improve Financial Wellbeing in the Workplace with BHN Extras

Are your employees feeling the financial squeeze? A combination of rising inflation, high interest rates, and ongoing cost-of-living pressures have left many workers experiencing money worries. This can have a real impact on financial wellbeing in the workplace for your staff. When this happens, it doesn’t just affect people’s personal lives but also their productivity, engagement, and overall wellbeing.

Recent research shows that, in the UK and Ireland, 9 out of 10 employees say financial stresses have affected them in the workplace. On top of this, poor financial wellbeing can contribute to mental health challenges that are costly for employers too. In fact, poor workplace mental health is said to cost UK employers £51 billion each year.

While the economic picture may feel uncertain, the good news is that employers don’t have to wait for the next market shift to start helping employees with their financial wellbeing in the workplace. There are proven steps businesses can take to improve financial wellbeing for employees, boost morale, and help their teams feel more secure with money. This guide explains what financial wellbeing in the workplace means, the pressures employees face, and the practical support employers can provide through BHN Extras.

What is financial wellbeing in the workplace?

Financial wellbeing in the workplace isn’t just about salary. It’s about how confident someone feels managing their money, handling everyday savings and costs, and planning for the future. Someone with good financial wellbeing feels in control of their finances and able to enjoy life without constant money stress.

When financial wellbeing is poor, it doesn’t always stay in employees’ private lives. It follows them into work in many ways, including the following:

• Money worries can make it harder to sleep, think clearly, and concentrate on tasks, with nearly 20% of employees saying they lose sleep due to money stresses
• They’re also closely linked with mental health challenges, including stress and anxiety
• Financial stress can strain relationships and affect physical wellbeing too

Practical financial support can help employees manage everyday costs and may contribute to stronger focus, attendance and retention.

Why financial wellbeing in the workplace matters

As mentioned, financial stress can affect sleep, concentration, confidence, and mental wellbeing. Not only does this cause workplace distraction, lower energy, and higher absenteeism, but it can also influence career decisions.

Employees who feel unsupported may look elsewhere for higher pay, better benefits, or greater flexibility. By contrast, practical financial support can strengthen trust and show that an employer understands the pressures people face outside work.

A strong approach to financial wellbeing in the workplace can help employers:

• Improve focus and day-to-day engagement
• Support mental and emotional wellbeing
• Strengthen employee retention and loyalty
• Make the overall reward package more valuable
• Build a fairer and more inclusive employee experience

This is not about replacing competitive salaries with perks. Pay should remain fair, transparent, and regularly reviewed, while benefits and support should add value around a salary rather than distracting from it.

How to improve financial wellbeing in the workplace

Many employees would greatly appreciate help managing their money. The most effective strategies for improving your employees’ financial wellbeing in the workplace combine immediate savings with longer-term support. Employees need help with today’s costs, but they may also benefit from guidance that helps them prepare for the future.

1. Start by listening to employees

Start by understanding the different financial pressures across your workforce. A graduate renting in a city may have different priorities from a parent paying for childcare or an older employee planning for retirement.

Use anonymous surveys or listening groups to understand where pressure is greatest. Ask which costs employees would most value help with, how confident they feel using existing benefits, and what prevents them from accessing support.

It’s also wise to make sure questions are both respectful and optional. Employees should never feel expected to disclose debt, savings, or other personal details. The goal is to identify shared needs, not examine and scrutinise all of your employees’ individual finances.

2. Review pay fairly and communicate clearly

No financial wellbeing strategy can compensate for unfair or unclear pay. That’s why you should review salaries regularly, monitor pay gaps, and make sure employees understand how pay decisions are made.

Clear communication is also important. Make sure you can clearly explain payslips, bonus arrangements, pension contributions, and salary sacrifice deductions in plain English, so there’s no confusion or misunderstandings that could possibly lead to workplace tensions or grievances.

3. Make financial education practical

Generic advice often gets ignored. Financial education works better when it responds to real factors in employees’ lives.

Offer short, accessible sessions on topics such as budgeting, understanding credit, saving for emergencies, pensions, mortgages, and planning for parental leave. Provide recordings or written guides so everyone can access them.

This kind of education should come from credible providers and remain impartial, so avoid presenting complex financial products as simple or casual solutions. Where regulated financial advice is required, signpost employees to an appropriately authorised professional.

4. Give employees access to confidential support

Money and financial wellbeing in the workplace can be difficult to talk about. Employees may fear judgement or worry that admitting financial stress could affect how they are viewed at work, so it’s a good idea to make confidential support visible and easy to access.

This could include an employee assistance programme, debt-support charities, financial coaching, or independent guidance services. Managers should know where to signpost people, but they should not try to become financial advisers.

On top of this, train managers to recognise signs of distress and respond with empathy, as this will help your people feel more comfortable having discussions that might feel difficult.

5. Reduce the costs connected with work

Some employees spend a significant amount simply getting to work and doing their job. Review whether these costs can be reduced to help improve financial wellbeing in the workplace for your staff.

Possible steps include flexible or hybrid working, car-sharing arrangements, secure bike storage, appropriate home working support, and prompt reimbursement of expenses. Employers can also review dress-code expectations, parking charges, and whether staff are expected to pay upfront for business travel.

6. Support career progression

Financial wellbeing is also linked to earning potential, so try to give employees a clear view of how they can develop, gain skills, and progress within the organisation. You could also offer mentoring, funded training, apprenticeships, and transparent promotion criteria.

Progression will not solve immediate financial pressure, but it helps employees see a route towards greater security and makes your support feel more meaningful as an employer.

7. Offer flexible benefits people will use

A diverse workforce needs choice. A benefit that is valuable to one employee may be irrelevant to another, so avoid building a package around assumptions.

Focus on benefits that reduce common household costs, support health, and help employees spread larger expenses, and make eligibility, deductions, and savings clear before anyone signs up.

You should also promote any benefits you offer throughout the year. A strong package cannot improve financial wellbeing in the workplace when employees do not know it exists, or when they find the system too complicated to use or navigate.

How BHN Extras supports financial wellbeing in the workplace

BHN Extras makes it easier to add practical, money-saving benefits to your wider financial wellbeing strategy. Not only are our benefits easy to use and access for your staff through one simple platform, but they will also make a genuine difference to your employees’ financial, emotional, and overall wellbeing in the workplace.

Home & tech salary sacrifice

With over half of consumers (52%) cutting down on non-essential spending, the home & tech salary sacrifice benefit gives employees a way to spread the cost of essential and higher-value home or technology products.

Whether it's smartphones, laptops, headphones, or washing machines, employees can save up to 8% on everyday items from IKEA or Currys and spread the cost interest-free straight from their salary.

Employee cashback card

Our research into changing shopping behaviours due to the cost-of-living crisis found that:

• 61% are buying less expensive brands or generic store own-brand products
• 52% are buying more products on sale
• 44% are buying more products on promotion (e.g. save % or 2-for-1 offers)

One way to help with the cost of everyday purchases is to introduce the bYond cashback card, which allows employees to earn up to 15% cashback at over 90 UK high street retailers and supermarkets, including Sainsbury's, Asda, Primark, and Marks & Spencer.

Employee discount schemes

With cost-of-living ever on the rise, the use of coupons and vouchers is consistently increasing too. That makes Extras Discounts an attractive employee benefit as it saves employees up to 15% on the cost of physical and digital gift cards.

There are many popular and trusted brands to choose from including H&M, Halfords, Costa Coffee, ASOS, Morrisons, and Spotify. Because employees can use the discounts on familiar everyday brands, the benefit can deliver visible savings throughout the year.

Commuting support

Transport costs can consume a significant portion of an employee’s pay, with almost half (45%) of British workers claiming their travel costs once again increased in 2025. Fortunately, there are ways to help your employees with these costs, including:

• Cyclescheme: The Cyclescheme Cycle to Work scheme gives employees up to 47% off the cost of a new bike and accessories from over 2,600 retailers across the UK.

• Green Car Benefit: For an affordable monthly amount, employees can choose an ultra-low emission vehicle package that includes insurance, road tax, and MOT with the Green Car Benefit.

Gym membership and lifestyle discounts

Being active isn’t just good for physical health but also mental wellbeing. However, many people are giving up gym memberships due to cost.

That’s where benefits like MyGymDiscounts step in to help. With this benefit, employees can save up to 25% on gym memberships and fitness classes, cutting costs whilst helping them keep on top of their health. These savings contribute to overall wellbeing and help people feel more energetic, focused, and positive at work.

Employee health cover

To help your employees save on medical-related costs, Bupa Health Cover offers dental insurance and private health insurance for your people. This is on top of the Bupa Well+ app, which helps your staff gain fast access to digital GPs, as well as cash plans to help you support your employees’ everyday healthcare needs.

Make financial wellbeing part of everyday work

Improving financial wellbeing in the workplace does not require employers to have every answer. It starts with listening, communicating clearly, and offering support that reflects how people really live and spend.

Review the pressures created by work. Make financial guidance easier to access. Create fair opportunities to progress. Then support those steps with flexible benefits that deliver real value.

BHN Extras gives employees an easier way to save money and gives HR a simpler way to run benefits. Real savings. Zero hassle. Benefits made simple.

Ready to ease living costs and build a benefits package employees can genuinely use? Get in touch with BHN Extras via our contact page or email enquiries@workplaceextras.com, and let’s make it happen.