"If you could make your whole workforce 13 IQ points smarter overnight...would you?"
Your colleagues aren't just 'distracted'. They're giving over valuable cognitive power to money stress, instead of work.
This is happening because financial services overlook 50% of them, while inflation has compounded the problem.
Government and policy are still catching up - but employers can help, and they'll be rewarded in productivity if they do.
Unlucky 13
The number 13 demonstrates the impact of financial stress. It is measured not in pounds or days, but in IQ points. This is actually not new research, it's a study from Harvard University in 2014, where their studies demonstrated that the same person measures between 10 and 13 IQ points lower when managing financial worries, vs. when not. The significance of this difference is obvious when you note that 13 IQ points can take someone upwards from 'average' to 'superior' intelligence, or downwards to 'borderline deficient'.
When you translate this into the workplace - it becomes obvious how much of an impact money worries can have, not only on staff health and wellbeing, but on company productivity.
Solving for financial wellbeing
When we solve for financial wellbeing, when we give people choice and control and visibility, we see people work 11% more hours. We see people take responsibility for their wellbeing. They have the data, they have the information, and they make a really positive choice to build their own financial habits that work for them and their money.
We also see 85% of people spend less. And this is a really counterintuitive finding, because our gut feel says if you open up pay for people, they're going to spend more. They do not. They spend less. They save money. They buy things when they're on sale, they calm down. They can think more clearly. They're less likely to be impulsive. They can book a holiday on sale. They can take advantage of bulk discounts. They can save financing costs. So this has a material impact on people's financial wellbeing.
When we solve for employees' financial confidence, we build confidence and happiness in all other areas of wellbeing.