Why employees need financial education
| Monday September 22, 2014 15:53
After all of these expenses, Dimpho is left with less than one thousand pula a month. With this remaining money she still has to cover all of her monthly expenses such as transport to work, school fees, food, lights and water.
Dimpho cannot afford such luxuries as visits to the salon or even have a social life, those days are long gone.
As the month passes, the stress on Dimpho to find the money for food for her family for dinner, the thought of how she will get to work tomorrow and similar emotions all fill her day, leaving no time focus on anything else.
Financially stressed workers are less focused, use more sick leave and are absent from work more often:
When poor money management is plaguing your staff, they are at risk of getting themselves into financial trouble.
This can lead to too many payday loans and advances, theft in the workplace, and eventually ITC Blacklisting.
This is bad news for business because the financial problems of every employee always spills over into the workplace.
This has a negative impact on employee morale, performance and productivity and eventually leads to lower profits for business.
By providing your staff with a financial education, they will be motivated and empowered. As an employer, you will see your workforce become happier, more focused on their jobs, achieve higher levels of productivity, improvement in morale, reduced absenteeism and excellent customer service, which of course leads to business growth.
Unfortunately, to date, we have not been given the opportunity to learn about basic money matters.
As a result, we have become too reliant on debt: “buy now, pay later”.
Nobody has shown us why this trend can soon become more than we can afford in repayments, quickly sinking us into much deeper debt than we can afford.
Similarly, we fall victim to offers and opportunities introduced to us by skilled sales people, who don’t always have our best interests at heart.
As an employer, you need to break these bad habits by offering financial education to all your staff as part of your corporate social responsibility.
All staff should take part in the Financial Wellness Program, regardless of their income bracket or their education level:
Encourage your staff to understand some fundamentals of money management and reduce the emotional stress caused by debt.
Offer an education program about:
* Dangers of excessive debt
* Managing a household budget
* Saving for a “rainy day”
(through this, you will soon see fewer requests from employees approaching management for loans:
* School fees for children
* Medical bills
* Unforeseen emergencies
Help your employees understand the basics of day to day money matters. Teach them how to plan their personal budget. Give them the tools to plan their way out of debt, and then how to start saving.
Staff with a high sense of financial wellbeing have a comfortable relationship with money:
Staff who are empowered to take control of their finances are aware of where their money goes each month, are able to plan and stick to a budget, they have a financial plan, and they meet their financial obligations.
Your employees will experience a strong sense of wellness and health; spend more time focusing on their jobs and become more productive and reach their highest potential.
Empower Your People to achieve Financial Wellbeing
It’s a necessary business investment. Author: Lechedzani Pitso – Financial Wellness Trainer with S.C.I. Training (Pty) Ltd. © S.C.I. Training run financial wellness and debt counselling programmes in Botswana.
For help and information contact them on 3180243 or 72309718 or leche@wellness.co.bw * Names in this article have been changed