Ep11: Is WFH dead now we have the cost of living crisis..?

We’re all feeling the effects of the sharp increase in energy, mortgages, rents etc.

And for leaders, the impact of the COLC will be as far-reaching as revenue performance, profitability, and employee well-being. This week, we’re going to chat specifically about how the COLC may impact remote or hybrid working – for better or for worse.

Questions we answer:

• What is the COLC?
• What has the COLC got to do with WFH?
• What does this mean for hybrid businesses
• Why should business leaders care?
• Tips and priorities for business leaders

Resources

All the links mentioned in the show.

Step Change – https://www.stepchange.org/

Provides the UK’s most comprehensive debt advice service. They help people with debt problems take back control of their finances and their lives.

Property Wealth – https://www.prosperitywealth.com/employee-benefits/

Employee benefits advice and benchmarking

National Debtline – https://nationaldebtline.org/

Use the Cost of Living hub to find out if you can pay less for your living costs and to learn about any extra help that might be available.

Pirkx – https://www.pirkx.com/

At Pirkx, we are all about making happier, healthier humans by providing affordable well-being benefits to everyone.

Connect with your hosts

• Connect with Al on LinkedIn 
• Connect with Leanne on LinkedIn
• Join the discussion about this episode on LinkedIn
• Email: podcast@TruthLiesandWork.com
• Follow us on Instagram @truthlieswork
• Chat with us on Twitter @truthlieswork
• YouTube channel for the podcast @TruthLiesWork
• Check us out on TikTok (LOL!!!) @truthlieswork

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The Transcript

⚠️ NOTE: This is an automated transcript, so it might not always be 100% accurate!

Al Elliott
Hey, it’s al here, just editing this and realise there’s a dodgy cable between Leanne’s microphone and our little fancy recording mixing thing. So I’ve tried to reduce the home and the house as much as possible, but it’s not quite as clear as normal. Everything should be back to normal next week because I’ve been to the shop and I got ourselves a brand new cable. Okay, back to the show.

Leanne Elliott
Hello, and welcome to the truth live and workplace culture podcast. My name is Leanne owl, and welcome back. Hello. If this is your first time listening, where have you been? Where have you been? I’ll be honest, it is your first episode, you rappel jumping in Episode 10. Honestly, but if it is your first time, let’s introduce ourselves out.

Al Elliott
So my name is Al. I’m a business owner, and I’m here to ask Leanne questions about building a business in terms of people.

Leanne Elliott
My name is Leanne, a business psychologist, which basically means I help small businesses and leaders with everything to do with people in culture to help their businesses grow and their people to thrive.

Al Elliott
Excellent. Okay. Hi. Hello, what’s your name? This, this isn’t a two way medium, but you can get in touch with us, we’ll tell you towards the end. Because we love hearing from listeners. It’s kind of weird recording on your own because you don’t really see the listener in front of you or hear that, you know, they’re not in front of you. So

Leanne Elliott
they’re not in front of you.

Al Elliott
Okay, so today we are talking about the cost of living crisis. And I’ll go into what that is in a second. And how it might or how Leanne thinks it might affect people working from home. So first of all, in terms of cost of living crisis, I’m sure you’ve heard the term before, but just in case you haven’t, essentially what we’re saying is that a the cost of living is in crisis. There we go. That’s the

Leanne Elliott
nice thing, do I put it, I like it.

Al Elliott
So there’s rising costs without going into the economics of it, because I don’t understand it and be I’m not qualified to talk about it. But essentially, inflation in certainly in the UK, and now is increasing across the US and EU inflation means that everything is getting more expensive. So particularly energy costs. If you rent, then your rents are probably going up if you have a mortgage, and your interest rate is not fixed and your mortgage is gonna go up. And so essentially, what’s happening is that we are moving in the UK towards a recession. Now, the problem is that as things as the prices go up, it means that it’s more and more difficult for families to afford things and so certain things have to go. There was what was that stat something about a million UK adults went a whole day without eating. Was that back in February 2022?

Leanne Elliott
Yes, I’m sorry, that question. I thought you were just talking return the question. Yes. No, it was it was it was by the food, food foundation Think Tank. So yeah, I think that’s that’s the the, you know, the the reality is a cost living crisis for for many was will mean the end of disposable income or less disposable income. Sadly, for many others, it is going to push people below the poverty threshold. And that’s what that statistic was finding that, yeah, million UK adults were going without eating for a whole day, within within that month, which is quite shocking statistic. Really, it

Al Elliott
is a little bit. And so again, we’re gonna get into how this is this is affecting work from home in a second. But it’s not just the UK, because it seems that the EU was at 2.2% inflation a number of months ago, and now it’s up at 8.9. So that’s going the same way, it seems that the US is going a similar way inflation is up. And obviously, you know, it is dependent on micro sort of economics in the country, what what’s going on. But certainly in the UK, you’re gonna see a massive increase in thing just staples like butter and bread, and then of course, your electricity, etc, etc, which has got a direct impact on running your machines and running everything from home. So there’s a few things that have caused it. Brexit for the UK, Brexit has been a massive, contentious issue

Leanne Elliott
gift that keeps giving Brexit.

Al Elliott
I think we, we both, you might have guessed that we both that we’re both very much remainders very much against Brexit. But of course, it’s happened. So we can’t cry about it. But there’s other things we

Leanne Elliott
can pray about it. And I suppose all we can do about it.

Al Elliott
And the other thing to consider is that COVID has just hit, it meant that a lot of businesses had to essentially close and be supported by the government, all that money has to come from somewhere. So that’s had a massive impact for everything. And also a lot of the service industry is going to shut down so there’s no income coming in. So this means that basically the UK and a lot of other countries around the world aren’t prepared for this cost of living crisis. There’s other things like supply chains. So I mean, the war in Ukraine is having an impact on supply of grain, etc, etc. To a lot of Europe. I’m not sure about America, per se Certainly Europe and Britain that’s happening. So its meaning the bigger because there’s less grain, therefore there’s less of say bread on the shelves, therefore the price of the bread goes up simple supply and demand. And then also like the weather, it’s just been this basically this kind of like horrible shitstorm that’s just come together. Because in 2021, there was a, there was a nasty cold snap in certain parts of Asia, which meant the energy per energy usage skyrocketed, which then pushed prices up. And there’s other things like regulation, certainly in the UK, there’s about 30 energy firms that have gone bust recently. I mean, when I say go boss, that might be a UK term basically gone gone out of business, because they can no longer provide energy at the prices, which they promised. So that means that now we’ve got kind of a monopoly in the UK of sort of two or three large energy providers, which they monopolise the market, they can charge basically whatever they want. Now, of course, if you’ve got three laptops, like in this office here, we have a computer, a laptop, and Leanne’s laptop, plus lights, cameras, all this kind of stuff, all that is going to increase the cost of energy that we’re going to be using. There are other concerns, like environmental concerns, and the UK is generally moving towards green energy, but we’re not quite there yet. Are we Lea? No, no. And agriculture as well. I mean, this is just this just this perfect shitstorm, as I said, because now we’re having crops that are in the UK that are rotting, because they haven’t got the people to go and pick them. Because the people traditionally were from Europe who came across migrates across for summer, or winter and pick the crops. And so that’s the problem with a photo again, reduced supply, you know, demand increasing or staying the same prices will go up. So, we need to ask the question, you’ve been in here for about eight minister, what’s the cost of living crisis got to do with working from home? Leah, can you answer that?

Leanne Elliott
Yes. So I think the I mean, the cost of living crisis, and I mean, just in terms of we think before looking at working from home or hybrid working, if we just look at kind of the impact that’s gonna have on people. So we heard about that that statistic earlier about million people going without a meal. And more recent survey, by Ranson 2022 actually found that 55% of people have, or considering getting a second job to pay for the increased cost of living. So as an employer, if your employees are now getting additional work, which may push their, you know, their working hours up significantly, that is going to not only affect them, in terms of their physical and mental health, but also potentially their productivity, which may impact your business. So yeah, the cost of living crisis is something that is going to impact businesses. And all of us, and the sad thing is, you know, the longer is our said, with between Brexit and COVID, we were already facing an uphill battle, at the war in there as well. Yeah. And the longer that goes on, the more we’re gonna be affected. So it is something to be mindful of bringing you back to working from home. But I think it’s quite obvious, really, things are more expensive than working from home was going to be more expensive. So that might mean that employees are maybe going to start considering going back into the office, maybe. What do you think?

Al Elliott
Yeah, I mean, there’s there’s kind of a weird thing that some of the some of our clients have wanted people back in the office, from from the start, really, and they’ve been really campaign to get people back in the office for variety of reasons. And so yes, understandably, people have been against going back because they’ve been working for home for two years, it’s so much easier as no commuter, you’ve got much more flexible hours, if you’ve got childcare issues, it’s probably easier if you’re at home to manage that kind of issue. But then the other side of the coin is that now with energy prices going up rents potentially going up, maybe business owners don’t want people back in the office, because they’re gonna have to pay their employees heating bill, essentially.

Leanne Elliott
Yeah, I think that is, that is a point, isn’t it? And I think what, you know, what you said there about lots of business owners have just been looking for a reason to get employees back in, you know, you might look at the cost of living crisis as one of those things that you can do, and, you know, fine. But making sure as well that, you know, if you’re just serving your own, your own needs for the benefit of yourself. And that is going to, you know, you know about employee engagement. We’ve talked about this before, we know that those actions are going to have an impact. So it’s not quite the clean cut solution. That said, if you know, you framed it as a way of, of supporting people with the cost of living crisis, then yeah, maybe this is something that could boost not only getting people back into the office, but employee engagement and wellbeing along with it. So in terms of, I guess, the the easiest problem to solve first, I guess, if you’re an employee or An employer is understanding how much more actually costs to work from home versus work in the office. And there’s no real consensus on this in terms of what people believe the right answers to be. It’s kind of kind of a 4040 split, in terms of people think it’s more cost effective to commute, people think it’s more cost effective to work from home. And then the remaining 20% think that an Office Home split is going to be as cost effective. And I guess it’s because we’ve never really sat down and figured that out before. But as you said, you know, with energy prices raising at the rate they are, yeah, this is something that that now may make a difference. I think you’ve got some stats, I’ll have a new one, how much it actually cost to work from home?

Al Elliott
Yeah, I think so. I’m gonna have to refer to my notes over here. But um, so the main thing, as we probably know, from working from home is the heating. And you know, there’s, there’s the old joke that that’s a Christmas, you know, that your dad always makes you put a jumper on rather than turning the heating on. But obviously, there’s some facts behind that, because the heating is the most expensive thing in in your house. So we’ve talked about Zoli NS done a little bit of research and to heat your house for one day. It’ll cost you 18 pounds. Now, are these the existing numbers, Leanne? Are these the new numbers? So the

Leanne Elliott
was these were taken within the last three weeks? So yes, they’re recent, but then they’re probably might have gone up already,

Al Elliott
potentially. So what we’re saying is that for one day, it’s 18 pound, what’s that about 2020 US dollars, to heat your to heat your house. For five days, you’re talking about 90 pounds for a month, you know, what is what should we do it in dollars, because nice, easy numbers. So 30 times 20 is $600, just to heat your house. This is US dollars, then to keep your computer running, it says about six pounds a month, but that’s probably based on most people turning it off. I don’t know about you, but I don’t turn my computer off at night probably should actually. But I don’t turn them off at night. You got tea, coffee, all that kind of thing. It’s probably about a quid quid 50. So at this point, if you’re not careful, and just for a five day working week, you’re in it for 100 pounds 100 UK pounds. So that’s, you know, you’ve got to compare that to commuting. Did you did you do some stats on some on the surprises on cube commuting or costs on commuting?

Leanne Elliott
I did, I did. But to be honest, there’s so many different variables that talking through I’m not sure they’ll make much sense. But of course, fuel for you know, diesel, petrol is going up in price as well. So if you do drive to work, that might be something that, you know, is much more expensive than it used to be. Whereas public transport I know, in Manchester recently, they brought in a standard fare. So wherever you go, and Manchester, you won’t be charged more than two pounds. So it might be that, you know, some of the local councils are starting to respond to the cost of in crisis as well in terms of public transport. So what might have been expended option before may now be more cost effective. But I think exactly what you said there, if it is a rough rule of thumb, as of October 2022, to work from home in terms of energy and heating, is going to cost you about 100 pounds a week or 120 US dollars. But of course, these are all UK based prices. So you’d need to work that out yourself, friend. But yeah, so about 100 pounds, if it costs you less to commute than 100 pounds, then you may be better working from the office.

Al Elliott
But I mean, there’s got to be a consideration as well that working for the office isn’t just about saving money you are going to be with people, you know, and there’s camaraderie and potential sort of ideas that it’s easier to collaborate sometimes when you’re with people. So those are things you’ve got to you’ve got to factor in. But essentially what you are saying is that if it’s costing if it costs you less than 100 pounds a week to commute into the office, then potentially it’s gonna be cheaper doing that than it is from working at home.

Leanne Elliott
Absolutely. I think in terms of businesses that are currently operating a hybrid model, yes, there are going to be other potential benefits of people coming to the office, like you said, collaboration has been cited as one knowledge sharing and particularly amongst newer or younger employees. And in terms of onboarding as well, you know, if you have new starters, then then yeah, that’s been cited as something that is easier to do in the office. I say sighted because I think it all depends on how you handle that situation. But that’s a different conversation for a different day. But I think you’re absolutely right, that the focus needs to be the cost of living crisis. So if you’re having conversations and you should be having conversations with your employees, have one to ones over the next few you know, next few days next few weeks, ask them how they’re being impacted by the cost of living crisis. Ask them how they are feeling financially point out that you know, you’ve heard some research it costs about 100 pounds a week to to work from home, go through some calculations with them, encourage them to, to look at that and equally look at your own peril. p&l and your own business costs and, and actually figuring out you know how many people you want in the office and the cost of that. But yeah, the focus should be on on the employee and supporting them. Through the cost of living crisis, which, you know, it’s been around for about 12 months already, it’s really starting to bite now. And I think the next six months are going to be really difficult for a lot of people.

Al Elliott
Definitely. So let’s switch to talking about hybrid models here. So a hybrid model, first of all, can you just define a hybrid workplace model, and then tell us what you think it means this cost living crisis means for the hybrid work model.

Leanne Elliott
So a hybrid work model is well in when employees will spend some of their time in the office, and some of their time working from home. The frequency of that will vary from business to business, from individual to individual, but having that split of working from home and working in the office, that is a hybrid model of work. So in terms of how it is going to, what’s it gonna mean, for businesses with the hybrid model? I think the first thing is, is costs, you know, cost to your business costs, the individual added that in either, you know, increased costs alongside rising prices that could cause you know, some real financial challenges for both business leaders and employees. So yeah, I think if you’re, and I guess, similarly, if you’re currently operating at a fully remote model, or a fully work from the office model, I guess it’s just a case of understanding, you know, the financial impact this is going to have, and potentially the psychological impact this is going to have on people that are struggling as well.

Al Elliott
So how is this different to previous sort of economic challenges? I think there’s a polite way of putting it.

Leanne Elliott
As you said, I think with this one, it really is just the perfect storm of so many things that are impacting the economy at the moment. And I think what I was actually listening to a presentation by an economist the other day, and he was kind of talking about, you know, the the trouble or that the added challenge with this economic situation is just the fact that of it that we’ve never quite seen before, or we’ve not had the same lead up before. And one thing that he was actually saying was jobs in the UK. So bearing in mind that we’ve I think we’ve already had a month of contraction, haven’t we in the UK, we’re not quite hit the recession yet, but it is coming. But at this point, the UK still has the lowest unemployment rate that has since the 1970s. It’s currently under 3.5%. And there is still you know, more than than a million jobs vacancy is advertised right now. So in terms of people being in work, it’s better than it ever, ever has been. But I think that is the you know, the tricky thing is whether, you know, as the economic crisis goes on the cost of living crisis goes on, is it going to start to affect jobs, plus, we’ve got the disruption of these new ways of working as well, which we’ve not really experienced on this scale before, given the economic challenge or potential recession we’re going into, and with that, just the levels of disruption, you know, so much has changed so quickly. And we just seem to be and I think this is kind of the good and bad side of it is that the bad is that you know, how much more disruption can we take, you know, psychologically, we’re all exhausted by the last three years, it’s been a lot. But equally we will share on how resilient and adaptable we are. I was actually reading that, you know, they had the tube strikes recently in London, that they submit ridiculous, like, I don’t can’t remember the numbers. But for argument’s sake, I just say it was like 50,000, people had to find an alternative route to work. Because this, these particular lines were all stations were closed because of the strikes. And they can track it by the Oyster card, right, which is like the little like the electronic card that you top up, and then he tapped like on a bus or tube or train like it covers all of Transport for London systems. So 50,000 People had to completely change their journeys. After the strikes finished something like 15 to 20,000 people didn’t return to the tube, they didn’t return to their normal way of getting to work, they either found a better way or a different way. I just thought that was really amazing that such a high percentage of people would join in experiencing that disruption, but actually find a solution that was maybe better for them in the long term. I think this is where kind of the the cost of the unquoted and hybrid work come together. Hybrid work is still so new and we’re still trying to figure out I’m not sure we can entirely predict how the cost of living crisis is going to impact it. But what we can be sure of is this disruption. It goes to one of two ways doesn’t it either? It either drains us to the point of burnout. Or you know, it gives us that that adaptability and resilience that we need to make things better and perhaps make hybrid work work.

Al Elliott
Yeah, I think we’re all going to be see some very, very different things going on over the next sort of five years with work as people redefine what work means. I mean, as we’ve talked before, about, you know, people can have their own recording studio at home using an iPhone and a microphone. So there’s different way and certainly, anecdotally, I’ve heard a lot of people are saying that sort of the Gen Zed, so the court Zoomers, now is up the court themselves.

Leanne Elliott
Are they? I think so zoom is off to check

Al Elliott
that. But, but yes, so and so I think what they’re looking for is saying, Okay, well, I can build a YouTube channel and I can make money that way rather than actually having to go to work and whether I can or not, obviously, time will tell and and the stats suggest that only a small percentage of them will actually make money from that. But it is redefining the way that we look at work. So I think there’s going to be some massive, massive changes. Now, you’ve said before that one of the biggest problems with work is stress. Now, obviously, if you’ve got financial issues, surely that’s going to be one of the biggest factors for stress at the moment.

Leanne Elliott
Yeah, absolutely. And that’s what we’re, you know, we’re starting starting to see more of I mean, you know, even I think for many years, people who are, you know, usually aged between kind of 20s, mid 20s, mid 30s, you know, financial pressures are, can be a bit more acute. And that’s still true now. So 35%, of 25 to 34 year olds have cited financial pressures as a cause of stress, which actually makes it the most common cause of stress outside of work. So if you bear in mind that, that that is probably going to increase and intensify with the cost of living crisis, then yeah, stress as a business leader, I would be worried about the levels, the increased levels of stress driven by, you know, financial challenges that my team is going to experience because we all know stress is not you know, your nervous already, you know, job stress, it makes employees more prone to error. It can cause dips in performance, it can trigger mental health challenges, burnout, absenteeism, conflict in the workplace, even, you know, and if job stress does go unaddressed, then it’s going to start to transcend the impact on the individual and start to have an impact on the business including turnover, and disengagement. So yeah, in terms of, of stress, we already know that it costs billions and billions of pounds a year. That is why there is so much money put into the health and wellness sector. And yeah, the reality is a cost of living crisis has the potential the very real potential to increase stress levels, and increase stress levels, and bad for business.

Al Elliott
So let’s get practical. So what tips would you give to business leaders? What are their priorities right now?

Leanne Elliott
I think the first thing is to really look at, you know, what, what financially works for you, you know, if we’re heading into a cost of living crisis, the last thing we want is, you know, businesses getting to a point where there is no longer financially viable for them to operate. So I think, you know, lucky numbers, talk to your accountant, figure out the costs, what are the increased costs, if more people are coming to the office, or more people are coming in more frequently. And from a cost perspective, figure out what works for the business. And then you might want to feed that into your current hybrid working policy. Or indeed, maybe create one if you’re currently a fully remote or fully static workplace. So I think that’s the thing is, it’s one of those things, put your own mask on before you help other people figure out your financial situation and what works for you. And then, of course, you know, your financial well being is a is a term that you might not be familiar with, but I promise you over the next three months, it’s going to be everywhere. So to give you a definition, because you know, I like that our financial well being is a state of being right where in a person can fully meet current and ongoing financial obligations, can feel secure in their financial future, and is able to make choices that allow them to enjoy life and financial well being is actually where I was at the four main factors that create wellbeing, psychological well being as a term and as a point of research. I think you have some experience with financial well being telecom people.

Al Elliott
Yeah, yeah, I have. I think if you listen before, you’ll know those back in about 2012 or 2002, I started a business and I was delivering beer to students in Leeds and Manchester after hours. Great idea, in theory, in practice, didn’t make a lot of money. From it, and then the licencing law changed, which meant that anyone could go to the local shop and buy beer at two o’clock in the morning. My business went from 20,000 a week to about 200 a week, and everything sort of imploded. My end up going well, I ended up going bankrupt for about 102,000 pounds. But the lead up to that was, I think, the most stressful time of my life because I had like credit card bills of like 10,000 on here, I had a van that that got repossessed, I bought, like stupidly, I wanted took a lease on a new BMW because I was doing property sales to basically make money and I was told that I couldn’t drive around in my battered old transit van, I had to go and get a decent car. So I went it took a leased out for that, which I couldn’t really afford, and the whole thing just imploded. And I remember I was in my apartment that I was well late on rent for. And the bailiffs came to the door, they were knocking on the door, and I was saying to my to my flatmate, she didn’t say anything. And the bellows were like, We can hear you talking. We know you’re in there. And I was like, Oh my god. So these things that used to go to the supermarket at 10 to 10, before it closed, we could go and buy all the stuff that was cheap. I remember one time we walked into Sainsbury’s, which is like a local supermarket in the UK. And it just said, it just said, as many bits as many bakery products as you want for a pound. And so I went around, and I was just getting carrier bags full of bread rolls and stuff that was slightly stale. And then they took them home froze them. And that was our dinner. But anyway, I don’t want to get the violins out. Because after that, I managed to build a successful company based on debt, which was interesting. And but yeah, that was really, really, really, really tough. And it just consumed me, I just felt like every day I’d wake up and have this huge weight on my chest, going, Oh my God, today, I need to go and make at least 500 pounds so that of that 450 It was to pay my debt. And that was left 50 pound a day to kind of like live on and pay on my rents and all that good stuff, which obviously the maths didn’t add up. So I mean, what was It’s funny, when I went bankrupt, the actual day I went bankrupt, I went to court and I don’t know if you’ve ever been bankrupt, I know you haven’t been but if you’re listening here I’ve been bankrupt is I thought it was kind of be like a big courtroom with what you see on TV where there’s going to be a judge in a wig and people you know, people wandering around with wigs on and my saying I put it to you, sir, that sounds awesome. So and it’s not you go into a little tiny room, you give your paperwork and then about an hour later, they come back with it stamped when right you’re bankrupt. And I’m walking out and the first feeling I had was terror, like, Oh my God, my life is over, I’m never gonna get to be able to get a mortgage. By the way, I have not got a mortgage. So that’s a load of rubbish. No one’s gonna give me a job. Again, I started my own business based on people who are going bankrupt. So that was a good thing. But also then, as the afternoons are developed, and I had a couple of beers, because I was so like, oh, as the afternoon developed, I felt more relief. And then I woke up the next morning, for the first time in such a long time just feeling oh my god, every pound I earned today I can use to spend on living rather than having to worry about paying debt. So all this to say not necessarily to tell you about my experience, but more to say that if if you’ve never had money worries, then you don’t know what it’s like, and how consuming it can be. And when I was doing my property sales, I know I wasn’t spending a week giving it 100% I was giving it 40% Because 60% of my of my attention was on thinking how am I going to eat tonight? How am I going to pay all these bills? Oh, my God, I’ve got you know, another letter from the mortgage company, saying that they’re going to repossess me, et cetera, et cetera. So I don’t want you to underestimate how important financial well being is.

Leanne Elliott
Well said that was Yeah. And I think even you could tell like the the, you could see in here the anxiety in your voice as you kind of record that time. And, and, you know, again, well acting is you moved on, I think you’re right, you cannot underestimate the impact of poor financial well being. Yeah, and in terms of not only on using individual, but on your performance, your productivity, your relationships. It is really far reaching. So yeah, so this is a real important moment for business leaders to step up. And, you know, there’s lots around about about well, being financial well being might not have been a focus isn’t that you’ve heard much about but it is going to be and you know, as the thing is, with every crisis, as Al said, then that comes incredible opportunity. And one of the things that I know you would have heard of is you know, the ongoing fight for talent, skill shortages, and how the importance of having a really attractive employer brand is, you know, key to competitive advantage in this type of market. And this gives you the opportunity to do that reason being Um, there was a recent survey again, I think that was Randstad in October 2022. So bang on recent that ask Does your employer have access to financial well being or money advice sessions to help with the cost of living crisis? Owl guestimation is on how many organisations said yes.

Al Elliott
What was the question? Does

Leanne Elliott
your employer offer access to financial well being or money advice sessions to help with the cost of living crisis?

Al Elliott
My gut instinct says pretty low. I probably go with somewhere around about 30%.

Leanne Elliott
slightly lower, but very close. Yeah. 26%. So a little over a quarter of businesses are currently offering financial well being in money advice. 40% said no. And the remainder wasn’t sure. And I think that’s actually quite a chunky, was it? 35%? So they weren’t sure quite a chunky number of people. Yeah, yeah, percentage. And my suspicion as to why this might be the case, is that there’s lots of organisations out there, including clients that we work with oblong, that will have things in place like Employee Assistance programmes, or employee benefit platforms. Perks is one that comes to mind. And within that, they will have lots of add ons and services and, and things that people can access. And 99% of them will have something around financial well being money advice, debt, mortgages, all that type of thing. So if you have one of these things in place, then you know, have some awareness sessions with your staff, show them what is available, you know, roleplay out role model it use some thinking, give them your experience of how you found it. Because yeah, if that is the case that 35% of businesses have these services, but people just aren’t sure how to access them. And there’s a massive opportunity with no extra expense. And if you are part of that 40% that don’t, then you’re lagging behind your competitors. So this is something that you need to prioritise immediately.

Al Elliott
Yeah, I think the Leanne’s a big proponent of employer brand. And there’s lots of aspects of employer brand. But one of the main things is just being a nice place to work and being caring about your the well being of your teams. And like you mentioned perks them, which I know that you’ve spoken to the MDI thing a couple of times for for perks. It’s not particularly expensive, is it?

Leanne Elliott
No, it’s It’s like, I mean, I couldn’t take that price. But I think it’s somewhere around kind of three to five pounds per employee per month, depending on the package that you choose. So yeah, it’s not much. And she was actually saying to be actually that there are some organisations that small organisations that could didn’t have the full budget to offer it to employees fully paid. So what they actually did is like, they did like a, like a wage thing. So it comes out of your wages, the employee pays for it, but it comes out of their wages, which I mean, isn’t ideal. And you need to be careful how you spend that. But at the same time, it’s, you know, if somebody is having significant financial challenges, and the thought of spending money might be triggering, but if that’s three pounds a month, is going to give them access to services that can help them fully transform their financial well being and that might be an investment well made. But yeah, it’s not much. And I think that’s something that when you are sitting down, as I said at the top, doing your numbers, are throwing out what figuring out what you can afford is a business to try and find a way to afford something like this, if you don’t already have it in place, if not for the well being and performance of your employees and your business. But for your competitive advantage.

Al Elliott
Brilliant, brilliant, and is a really good I mean, there’s other platforms out there available. But I mean, they do things like mindfulness, there’s I think there’s there’s physical, like PT, there’s all kinds of financial stuff on there. So it’s definitely worth looking at. So as we’re getting up to about 35 minutes, then is there anything else that you think is important to mention to leaders now who want to help people with the customer in crisis?

Leanne Elliott
I think empathy is one of the best things you can display as a leader in any circumstance, but particularly in this and particularly in the area, where people aren’t as, you know, as comfortable to talk about their financial situations and potential financial challenges. So having that empathy sharing stories, if you’ve had a similar story to owl, you know, is going to be going to be helpful and less than you know and I think with with empathy it’s important to listen first let somebody get the current circumstance off their chest and what they’re going through and then come with them at well you know at them with the solutions. Don’t gonna say go go diving in. And you know, away NSS is a big thing, you know, if you said if you’ve got those programmes in place, making sure your employees know how to access them, both in terms of financial support, and also things like use, like shopping vouchers and stuff know, like cashback and that type of thing. You know, show them how much they can save, show them what they can do to, to reduce our bills down. And yeah, awareness. There are lots of organisations out there that offer support free support to people who are suffering. So yes, I’m opposed to these external services. So for example, I think this Citizens Advice Bureau is a really good port of call for everything to do with that. And in terms of what they’ll always be able to do is help you as well in terms of any benefits that you may be eligible for in terms of child tax credits, or tax breaks, if you’re married, and all that type of stuff. And yeah, any kind of debt help lines out there, we’ll leave lots of links in the show notes for you. I think it really is just a case of making sure that if you can’t offer the support within your business, we’ll look at ways that you may be able to, and at the very least signpost to external services.

Al Elliott
brilliant, absolutely brilliant. There’s a guy called Martin Lewis, a money saving expert in the UK. And I know that you can traction in the US and Australia now. And he’s always got some really good ideas. In fact, with interest rates going up at the moment, there’s a particular term and I forget forgotten what it’s called. But quite often, you can go and take money from a credit card at or from a loan on a low interest rate, and then invest it in a savings account at a higher interest rate. And you can make money that way. Now, obviously speak, go to his study site and read what he’s talking about, because I did it way, way back then, and I messed it up. But there’s all kinds of different ways like that. And I think just being really like the handset being really empathetic. And if you are a business owner, chances are you’ve had money struggles, because most business owners spend the first year or two years balancing everything, just tell your story. You know, I think just being really open and I found that the number of speaking gigs I got back when I had gone bankrupt, I thought nobody want to talk to me and everybody wanted to talk to me, they wanted me to come and do do presentations on being bankrupt because that you know, not many people are actually able to talk about it and be honest about it. So, so I think yeah, empathy, honesty, and just, you know, just be good people. You can.

Leanne Elliott
Yeah, absolutely. And one of the organisation actually it’s just bring to mind that I actually referred a client to last week is an organisation called prosperity employee, sorry, prosperity, wealth, who offer a range of services around employee benefits and financial well being they usually have a free webinar every kind of four to six weeks. So have a look on their website. Again, we’ll link it and they actually also offer and I think this particular offer may be finished now in the UK, because it you were able to sheduled a free 10 minute conversation and to benchmark your current staff benefits compared to your competitors. So yeah, so have a look on their website that covers not only salary but 10 key benefits such as pension health schemes, and yet lots of good stuff. So have a look at have a look at that. We’ll leave it in the show notes and yeah, get in touch and I the reason I feel confident referring them as they are the people who actually put me onto perks in the beginning, which I’ve had some dealings with is our third. And also my client went through this last week and found it really helpful consultation. So yeah, well, we’ll put that link in for you.

Al Elliott
Fabulous. Okay, so if you enjoyed this, then do us a favour, subscribe, and also tell someone else about it or a few other people about it. As you know, we’re only on what episode 11 Now is it so, so we’re gonna be brand new. And we’ve got the support from HubSpot now. But we also need to support you so feel free to share this. Tell your friends, and we’ll see you next time I think bye bye