How NHS organisations can support staff through financial education
As the cost of living rises, NHS workers, including NHS bank staff, are understandably experiencing increased financial pressures. With 45% of the UK adult population lacking confidence when managing their money (according to the MaPS 2021 Financial Wellbeing Survey), it’s important that healthcare organisations do all they can to provide adequate financial education to best support clinicians during this particularly challenging period.
Below we share how the role of education forms a key component of a successful financial wellbeing strategy that both supports and retains clinicians, including those who work as NHS bank staff.
3 things to consider when forming a financial training programme
Comprehensive financial training is an effective way of helping clinicians develop the skills they need to better manage their money. Such programmes can cover a variety of areas, from understanding financial abuse to approaches to budgeting and saving. However, to truly meet the needs of clinicians, we recommend taking into account 3 things:
- Focus on soft skills: Research from the CIPD shows that focusing on the soft skills of money management – such as encouraging better judgements, behaviours, and attitudes towards money – produces better outcomes than technical knowledge of the financial world (bonds or pensions, for example).
- Tailor to your staff’s needs: A financial education programme should be topically relevant and targeted to meet the specific painpoints of your clinicians and the particular financial decisions they may be faced with. We recommend speaking to your clinicians and forming a programme based on what they need most, rather than solely following more generic or non-industry specific recommendations.
- Create multiple touchpoints: Your strategy should go beyond just ‘education’, which in isolation can be negatively received as top-down ‘teaching’, and instead focus on building multiple ‘touchpoints’. Examples of a financial wellbeing touchpoint include sending a message which prompts a clinician to complete a specific action, or identifying peers within your workforce to act as financial wellbeing champions and share first-hand the money management tips that have worked for them.
Check out our masterclass > Boosting NHS staff retention with a financial wellbeing strategy
Once these 3 steps have been considered, it’s important to engage with clinicians in a varied, accessible and inclusive way. Below we have identified a number of ways this can be achieved to maximise the success of a financial education strategy:
- Workshops: Organise virtual financial education workshops that cover a range of financial topics such as budgeting, saving, debt management, and retirement planning, delivered by financial experts.
- Resources: Provide easily accessible online resources. Create a library of financial resources, such as articles, videos, and podcasts that employees can access at their convenience.
- Participation: Encourage staff to participate in financial education programmes by offering incentives or rewards for completion.
- Partnership: Collaborate with experts that offer financial education programs to provide employees with access to additional resources and expertise.
- Benefits: Integrate financial education into employee benefits packages, such as retirement plans or employee assistance programs.
- Communication: Clearly communicate the benefits of financial education, such as increased job satisfaction, reduced stress, and improved overall wellbeing.
The final piece to consider to successfully champion financial education across your organisation is ensuring clinicians are aware of how to access, use and benefit from your financial programme – having resources available is only half of the solution.
We hope you found this information useful. If you would like to discuss your organisation’s specific financial wellbeing strategy with one of our experts, please get in touch at hello@patchwork.health.
