DISCUSSION Serving All? How can employers support financial inclusion?

In January 2020, Tomorrow’s Company co-hosted a major Financial Inclusion Summit, to launch our report into the role of employers in addressing financial inclusion. This report was the summary of our research in this area – including roundtable dialogue discussions and innovation labs, bringing together stakeholders from across businesses with those in the charity and public sector. Financial inclusion is a vast topic – one that is only becoming more critical in the light of the Coronavirus pandemic of 2020 – and our attempt was not to solve it overnight. Instead, this work focused on the much narrower ask: what can employers do to provide their teams with support and/or innovation in ways that can support their financial wellbeing?

The report makes a strong case for organisations to consider financial wellbeing as a core aspect of their people and business strategy. While increasing numbers of organisations have some provision around wellbeing and mental health – and recognise both the value of getting this right and the risks of getting it wrong – these do not always or often include financial wellbeing as part of the scope. For some, this is due to discomfort, or a sense that employers’ responsibility for financial wellbeing rests solely on fair pay. Of course, this is part of the picture, but there are many reasons why employers are ideally situated to make financial security, wellbeing and inclusion a cornerstone of their business and HR strategy.

The report also sets out a series of practical solutions to address financial wellbeing in the workplace so that business can better unlock performance and employees can build greater financial security.

Want to hear more?

• You can read the full report here.
• Find out more about our work behind the scenes, our research approach and the organisations we worked with here.
• Video coverage of the event here.
• Some coverage of the event here.