Financial Wellbeing: Women and non-managers face financial exclusion

An industry report has found that women and non-managers face significantly greater financial challenges than the average UK employee. The report goes on to suggest that HR isn’t addressing these people’s needs. 

Dynamics in Financial Wellbeing: The Inclusion Edition 2024, comes from Bippit, a platform which offers professional financial coaching to individuals. Based on a survey of 2,000 UK employees and 500 HR managers, it found that while 18% of UK employees worry about money daily, women are over three times more likely than men to feel this stress, affecting nearly 28% of working women. Non-managers are more than twice as likely to worry about money than managers and twice as likely to feel unsupported by their employer.

The report suggests that HR isn’t closing these inclusion gaps

39% of non-managers say their organisation provides no financial wellbeing support to them, compared to just 12% of managers. Women are also three times less likely to share their money worries with their employer than men.

The research goes on to suggest that there’s a disconnect between HR and the lived experiences of these groups. Only 17% of HR professionals say money is their top stressor, behind work, mental health, physical health, and friendships. Yet for women (37%) and non-managers (34%), money is their biggest concern. This disconnect is further highlighted when it comes to perceptions of employer support. 59% of HR professionals believe they provide financial support appropriate to employee needs, and yet only 44% of employees agree, dropping to 31% of female employees who agree.

“We have found that there are considerable differences in the lived experiences between HR professionals and employees, which may be shielding HR from the struggles that their people are experiencing,” said Sam Lathey, Chief Executive of Bippit. “This appears to be leading HR to underestimate the scale of inclusion challenges across various groups in the workforce, which could have significant implications for how we design inclusive financial wellbeing strategies in the future.”

Andrew Berrie, Head of Corporate Partnerships and leading Workplace Wellbeing at Mind commented on the findings: “The cause of financial concerns will vary within each workforce but could include things like debt, dealing with unexpected changes in life, or not being well enough to manage finances. Likewise, the impact this has on mental health will vary from person to person. Organisations need to understand the financial challenges their workforce might face and how to support them.”