Employee Wellbeing Archives - Page 2 of 3

How to address mental health in the workplace

Posted on October 14, 2020August 9, 2023 by Chris James

Addressing mental health in the workplace is becoming increasingly important – for several reasons. First, employees can’t perform their best when they’re not mentally well. Work also tends to be a primary source of stress for many people, which means that companies have a responsibility to help alleviate some of that burden. Given this, it’s critical for HR teams to prioritise and support the mental health of their workforce. We’ll share ideas to help you accomplish this.

The importance of mental health in the workplace

Before we get into the recommendations, let’s take a closer look at how mental health issues are impacting your employees. According to the 2019 Thriving Workplace Survey National Report, which surveyed over 10,000 Australian workers in a broad range of industries and occupations, 50.6% of the Australian workforce had experienced a mental health condition.

Unfortunately, work was one of the top reasons for these mental health issues – with two in five employees reporting that their workplace either caused their condition or made it worse. This is largely due to factors like high-stress deadlines, unmanageable workloads, and demanding clients. As a result, these work-related mental health conditions cost approximately $543 million in workers compensation and $750 million in life insurance claims paid to Australians.

Despite these pervasive issues, more than half of Australian workers don’t believe their employers have taken any actions to improve their wellbeing. This demonstrates that there’s a clear gap between what employees need to perform their best and what companies are actually doing to support this need.

Ideas to help employees with mental health at work

If you truly want to address the mental health of your employees, there are various steps you can take as an HR team. Some of these recommendations come in the form of additional benefits, while others are behaviors you can start putting into action today. Choose whichever ideas are the most aligned with the needs of your workforce, and go from there.

1. Invest in mental health benefits

Now is a great time to update your benefits package and include offerings that improve emotional wellbeing. For example, we’re partnering with Headspace for Work to support Flare’s customers on their journey to bring mental health programs and wellbeing into their workplaces. Another idea is to cover the cost of counseling sessions or a virtual therapy app for your employees.

If you have a limited budget and can’t introduce significant programs like this right now, start small. Give employees designated “mental health” days to take time away from work and recharge. Or host a virtual series of employee-led wellness events to guide people through meditation or yoga sessions. There are many creative ways to incorporate more mental-health focused offerings into your employee benefits.

2. Create a culture of wellness

Aside from benefits, we encourage organisations to make wellness a foundation of their company culture. What exactly does this mean? This means making work a place where it’s normal and encouraged to be honest about topics related to mental health. There are several ways to achieve this type of culture.

First, invest in mental health training for the entire company. This will help everyone better navigate conversations about mental health and develop more compassion for those who are struggling. Also, consider introducing safe spaces for employees to discuss their own progress or hardships with their mental wellness – this can be in the form of an Employee Resource Group, Slack channel, or monthly meeting. Finally, encourage your executive team to lead by example. When the CEO is willing to speak openly about a tough topic, it’ll inspire the rest of the organisation to follow suit.

3. Commit to specific goals

It may be helpful to identify metrics when it comes to these mental health initiatives. Not only will it help you track progress, but it’ll also hold everyone accountable to these investments. So whether it’s aiming to reduce the stress levels of employees by 10% or having 90% of your employees feel that their mental health is supported at work, commit to specific goals.

From there, you can use regular wellness surveys, employee focus groups, or one-on-one conversations to gauge how your company is progressing. Collecting this type of feedback can also alert you to programs that aren’t performing as they should and give you an opportunity to iterate on them as needed.

Mental health plays such a huge role when it comes to the overall happiness, performance, and wellbeing of your employees. Don’t overlook this critical aspect of your HR strategy and make sure to introduce initiatives that support the mental health needs of your workfroce.

If you have any employees who need support, be sure to check out Wellness@Work, a free hub designed to support HR and Australian workers by giving them access to free content.

If you’re looking for an additional HR software to support your business, Flare offers a free onboarding software with employee management and benefits. To learn more, please request a demo.

How HR can help employees with financial wellbeing outside of salary

Posted on October 7, 2020August 11, 2023 by Chris James

A lack of financial wellbeing is costing Australian businesses an estimated $31.1 billion in lost revenue every year. But more importantly, it’s negatively impacting the overall health of employees, who are having to take more sick days and struggling to be productive at work as a result of their financial stress.

What can HR teams do to support workers who are having trouble with their finances? Clearly, simply providing employees with a paycheck isn’t enough. In this post, we’ll explore additional ideas to help your workforce achieve better financial health.

How HR can support employee financial wellbeing

While paying employees a fair salary is an important part of financial wellbeing, there are other components to take into consideration. For instance, even if an employee makes a high salary, a lack of basic money management skills won’t set them up for success in the future.

That’s why HR needs to find other ways to advocate for the financial wellbeing of their employees – outside of their salary. We encourage HR leaders to work closely with their C-suite and finance teams to support initiatives that can set employees up for success – not only in the present – but also in the future. We share recommendations in the next section.

Ideas to help employees with financial wellbeing

There are many modern solutions to choose from when it comes to helping employees with their financial wellbeing. We share some of our favorite ideas below:

1. Encourage savings

Whether it’s to their superannuation account or a separate retirement account, it’s important to encourage your employees to put aside as much money as possible. There are a few ways to motivate employees to save. One of the most effective ways is to set up a system that allows workers to automatically take a portion of their paycheck and deposit it into their savings accounts. This way, your employees don’t have to make the challenging decision to manually take money out of their paycheck – it just goes into their savings without them noticing and will accumulate over time.

The benefits:

Sets employees up for success in the future
Allows employees to save for major milestones, such as purchasing a house or starting a family
Serves as a financial safety net in case of emergency

2. Provide flexible payment options

More and more employers are opting for flexible payment options for their employees. It’s easy to see why. Flexible pay is a great option for employees who want to access their paychecks on their own time instead of following the standard payroll schedule. So instead of receiving a paycheck every two weeks, an employee can choose to cash out what they earned in real time.

The benefits:

Allows employees to choose a compensation schedule that works for their needs
Relieves the stress of having to worry about whether they’ll receive a paycheck in time to pay rent or cover their next bill

3. Support major expenses

Many times, what prevents employees from experiencing better financial wellbeing is the major recurring expenses in their lives. For example, monthly car payments. Having to budget for the mortgage – on top of taxes, gas, and maintenance costs – for several years can be financially burdensome. To relieve the stress of this expense, your company can either offer company car loans or set up a novated lease that allows employees to finance a new or used car with payments out of their salary package with pre-tax deductions.

The benefits:

Makes major expenses more manageable and easier to budget for
Saves employees money in the long run
Doesn’t require a long-term commitment and offers more flexibility in terms of options

4. Create financial education opportunities

A lack of financial literacy is a huge blocker when it comes to employees achieving financial wellbeing. In fact, a survey found that fewer than half of all Australians could answer five basic financial questions correctly. To improve financial literacy, we recommend introducing various educational opportunities for your workforce. This can include anything from hosting financial literacy workshops to offering free sessions with financial advisors as a company benefit.

The benefits:

Empowers employees to take their finances into their own hands
Arms employees with the knowledge to make smart financial decisions

There are many things HR teams can do to improve the financial wellbeing of their workforce – even beyond just paying a salary. Identify which of these recommendations align with the needs of your organisation and get started on them today.

If you have any employees who are in need of support, be sure to check out Wellness@Work, a free hub designed to support HR and Australian workers by giving them access to free content.

If you’re looking for an additional HR software to support your business, Flare offers a free onboarding software with employee management and benefits. To learn more, please request a demo.

How to run a financial literacy workshop for employees

Posted on August 27, 2020August 11, 2023 by Chris James

We constantly hear about the importance of financial wellbeing. But how can we actually help our employees achieve this state? The answer lies in building up their financial literacy. While there are many ways to accomplish this, we believe that workshops are one of the most powerful approaches to financial education. In this post, we’ll share recommendations on how to run impactful financial literacy workshops for your employees.

What is financial literacy, and why is it so important?

Before we dive in, let’s explore exactly what financial literacy is and why it’s foundational to achieving financial health. Financial literacy is having the knowledge to make informed financial decisions. This can be anything from understanding how to invest at the right times to knowing how to save toward a significant milestone like a house or a car.

A lack of financial literacy is a significant problem in Australia. A survey found that fewer than half of all Australians could answer five basic financial questions correctly. The reason why this is significant is because low levels of financial literacy translates to poor financial health.

That same survey found that poverty rates among the least financially literate are twice as high compared to the most financially literate. People with lower financial literacy are also less likely to participate in household budget decisions, tend not to save as much money, and are more vulnerable to financial stress – a factor that costs Australian businesses an estimated $31.1 billion per year in lost revenue.

Related article: 5 Ways to help your employees improve their financial wellbeing

Steps to run a financial literacy workshop for employees

One of the best ways you, as the employer, can help combat these low rates of financial literacy is with education. Workshops, in particular, are a great way to get your employees engaged in their financial education. Not only are workshops interactive, but also having a large group of people at your organisation participate in them can make learning about finances less intimidating for others.

1. Identify your employees’ needs

Before you design your financial literacy workshop, it’s important to understand exactly what your employees want to gain from the experience. That’s why we recommend distributing a short survey ahead of time to figure out what your workforce most wants to learn from the workshop. This will help you design a curriculum that’s truly valuable.

For example: perhaps your workforce feels most urgently about learning how to save money – especially given the current circumstances with COVID-19. Instead, you host a workshop that’s solely focused on investing because you made an assumption about what would be interesting to the company. As a result, you disincentivise employees from joining future workshops since they’re not addressing their most pressing needs.

2. Craft a workshop series that addresses these needs

Once you have a clear understanding of what your employees want to gain from the workshop, it’s time to use that feedback to craft your workshop series. Outside of the content, there are other considerations to think about as well. Use the questions below to guide the design of your workshop:

How many workshops will there be in total?
How long will each workshop be?
What will be the cadence of these workshops (bi-weekly, monthly, etc.)?
How will we accommodate for employees in different time zones?

Make sure to answer these questions from the perspective of what’s best for your employees. So if you know many of your employees have young children, try to schedule shorter sessions that happen at a reasonable time of day. Or, better yet, have multiple session options so people can choose a time that’s best for their schedules.

Related article: 10 Ideas to help you boost your employee engagement

3. Choose a top-notch facilitator

It’s critical to choose an engaging, professional, and knowledgeable facilitator for your workshop sessions. Facilitators are trained to lead conversations about various financial subjects, but they’re not necessarily certified accountants or financial advisors.

There are a few criteria to take into consideration when choosing a facilitator. Choose an individual who has expertise in the specific topic you want to address – whether that’s budgeting or investment portfolios. Similarly, make sure they have experience facilitating in a virtual environment since most of us are still working remotely. The last thing you want is to hire someone who is uncomfortable on video calls and ends up leading an unproductive session.

4. Set expectations

It’s important to be clear with your employees about what they’ll gain from these workshops. You don’t want them to go into the experience thinking they’ll receive personalised financial advice from their facilitator. Instead, in all your communication about the workshop, let people know that the purpose of these workshops is to gain a basic understanding of important financial subjects. If they want additional resources to improve their sense of financial wellbeing, there are certainly ways you can support them! But these financial literacy workshops are solely for general education.

5. Build anticipation around the workshop

Now that you have the financial literacy workshops scheduled and in place, how do you get your employees to actually join? In addition to announcing the workshop at your next all-hands meeting, there are other creative tactics you can implement to build anticipation around the workshop:

Set up catchy Slack reminders about the upcoming workshop
Incentivise participation by offering a random prize drawing for those who join
Ask the CEO to join and encourage participation
Communicate the benefits that come with increasing financial literacy
Take photos (or screenshots) and create a “teaser” video after the first workshop to encourage more people to join for the next one

6. Follow up with a survey

Finally, just as we started the financial literacy workshop with a survey, we want to end with one too. After the first session, ask your employees how they felt about the experience. Specifically, did they gain value from it? If not, what could have been improved? Also ask questions about the facilitator to make sure they’re the right fit for your workforce. You can then use all the feedback you collect to make adjustments before your next workshop.

Workshops are a fantastic way to help your employees with their financial literacy and, in turn, improve their sense of financial wellbeing. Use the steps we outlined above to run a financial literacy workshop that will be impactful for both your workers and your business.

If you have any employees who are in need of support, be sure to check out Wellness@Work, a free hub designed to support HR and Australian workers by giving them access to free content.

If you’re looking for an additional HR software to support your business, Flare offers a free onboarding software with employee management and benefits. To learn more, please request a demo.

What is a novated lease and how does it work? Here’s everything you need to know

Posted on August 19, 2020August 9, 2023 by Chris James

We’re always trying to think of the best benefits to offer our employees. Ones that will either relieve or solve a pain point they’re facing and generally make their lives easier. A benefit that you may not have considered yet, but checks both of these boxes, is a novated lease.

If you’re unfamiliar with this concept, don’t worry! In this post, we’ll explain exactly what a novated lease is, what the benefits are, and what this financial offering looks like in action.

What is a novated lease?

In the simplest terms: a novated lease allows employees to finance a new or used car by having their employer make payments out of their salary package with pre-tax deductions. These payments include the cost of running expenses as well, such as maintenance, insurance, and petrol.

In other words, it’s a deal between an employee, a finance provider, and an employer to lease a vehicle. The key word here is lease. As you might be aware, this is a bit different from renting or owning a car. With a lease, your employee is paying down a certain amount for a specified period of time (usually anywhere from one to five years). At the end of the lease period, they can choose to take out a new lease with a different car, extend the existing lease, or buy the car by paying the residual amount.

You may be wondering: why should I offer my employees a novated lease when they can just finance their own cars? This is a great question. As you’ll see in the next section, a novated lease comes with many benefits.

The benefits of a novated lease

There are many upsides that come with offering a novated lease – for both the company and your employees. Let’s dive into some of the top benefits below:

For employees

Tax savings. Of course, the biggest advantage to a novated lease is the tax break! Since the novated lease payments are coming out of your employee’s pre-tax income, that means your employee’s taxable income will be significantly reduced. Your employees also don’t have to pay the goods and services tax (GST) that they would normally have to if they were buying a car themselves. As a result, they’ll have much more disposable income to spend in other areas of their life.

Less logistics. Another benefit of the novated lease over other methods of financing a car is the reduction in logistics. Instead of having to manage multiple payments – from monthly loans to car maintenance expenses – everything is simplified into a single monthly deduction from your employee’s paycheck. And since the process is largely managed by the employer and the finance provider, your employee doesn’t have to stress about budgeting or scheduling payments.

Flexibility. A novated lease also gives your employees more flexibility. At the end of their lease, employees can choose to upgrade to a different type of vehicle, brand, or style since they don’t own the car. For example, if their family grows, they can opt to start a new lease for a larger car to accommodate their needs. Similarly, if the employee ends up loving the car they leased, they can also choose to buy that car by paying off the remaining cost.

For employers

More talent. Offering a novated lease is a great way to stand out from the competition when it comes to attracting new talent. It’s a fantastic benefit that will help employees save money and demonstrates that your organisation cares about their financial wellbeing. The best part? It costs you very little to do so – especially compared to alternative options like managing a company fleet.

Low risk. Another great benefit is that there’s very little risk to your business with a novated lease. Vehicles under this agreement aren’t considered an asset or liability to your company. Plus, the vehicle doesn’t become your responsibility if your employee decides to leave before the end of the lease.

How does a novated lease work?

Now that you have a clearer understanding of the novated lease, let’s talk about what it looks like in action. At Flare, we offer a novated lease option that employers can register their workforce for. Once you’re signed up, the steps to get your employees set up with a novated lease are fairly straightforward:

Check eligibility. If your employee wants to take advantage of the company’s novated lease benefit, you just have to make sure they’re eligible! Eligibility requirements tend to differ depending on the organisation. For instance, some employers don’t extend the benefit to casual workers since their pay tends to fluctuate. Once you’ve determined that your employee qualifies, give them the thumbs up to pick a car!

Enter into a lease agreement. As we mentioned before, this will be a three-way agreement between you, your employee, and a finance provider. At this step, you’ll decide things like how much of the employee’s pre-tax salary will be taken out for the repayments under the novated lease, how long the lease is for, etc. There’s also some paperwork that will need to be completed, such as the finance lease agreement and the novation agreement.

Make repayments on behalf of your employee. Once all the details of the lease are settled, all you have to do is make sure to set up the deductions from your employee’s pre-tax salary and make repayments directly to the finance provider. Aside from that, the car is largely your employee’s responsibility. They will come to you if they have additional questions or concerns.

As you can see, the novated lease is a great benefit to consider adding to your employee offerings. Not only does it give your workforce a flexible financing option for a car, but it also provides them with many additional benefits like tax savings and reduced stress around the logistics of owning a car. If you’re curious to learn more, check out Flare Cars for more information.

What to do when you can’t give your employees a pay rise

Posted on July 28, 2020August 9, 2023 by Chris James

With Australia now experiencing a new wave of COVID-19 outbreaks, companies continue to feel the pressure of the pandemic. Unfortunately, this also means that employees may have to keep waiting for their promotions and pay rises due to constrained resources. This, of course, is likely to lead to lower employee morale.

But there are ways for companies to mitigate the negative impact of the pandemic. One of the best solutions is to consider expanding your benefits offerings. These additional offerings can support your employees in key areas during this challenging time and also provide some financial relief to make up for the lack of a pay rise. Below, we share four categories of benefits to consider:

Flexible work benefits

According to a study, a flexible work arrangement is one of the ‘must have’ benefits for Australian employees. This is especially prevalent now, as employees are feeling the stress of balancing their work and home lives once again. Here are some flexible work benefits to consider:

Flexible working hours. The 9 to 5 schedule doesn’t work for all employees – especially those with families and children. Allow your workforce to choose their own hours so they don’t have to stress about being online at a time that’s inconvenient for them. This will not only relieve stress but also demonstrate to employees that you understand and respect their individual needs.

Work from home options. Whether your employees have recently returned to the office or are still remote, it may be a good time to either extend or offer up work from home options as an alternative to being in the office. As COVID-19 cases escalate again, you want to make sure everyone feels safe while they work.

Home office setups. If you do have employees working from home, relieve some of the burden by paying for their home office set up. This can include covering the cost of a new desk, chair, monitor, or whatever else they need to work comfortably from home.

Financial benefits

Even if you can’t directly provide a pay rise, there are other ways to financially support your employees – while staying within your HR budget. Below are a few ideas of the types of financial benefits you can offer:

Employee discounts. At Flare, we have an exclusive benefits and discount platform. that provides your employees with discounts from hundreds of leading retailers, including Amazon, Woolworths, and Foot Locker. Giving your workforce access to these types of benefits can ease some of the financial burden they’re feeling right now.

Novated car leasing. Offering employee benefits like novated car leases and salary packaging can help your employees reduce their taxable income and therefore reduce their income tax. Flare offers novated car leasing to customers as part of employee benefits.

Real time pay. Imagine if employees could access their pay after each day’s work rather than waiting for the weekly, fortnightly or monthly pay cycle? This could soon be a possibility. Flare will soon be offering real time pay as part of employee benefits so that employees can access their pay for a small fixed fee for when they really need it.

Equity. If you can’t afford to increase the salary of your employees, consider giving them more equity instead. This is an investment that can pay off many times over in the long run, and it gives workers more stake in your organisation – which, in turn, can boost morale and engagement.

International payment transfers. You may have employees with family members outside of Australia that they’re providing financial support to during COVID-19. If you want to help them save on expensive transfers, consider offering WorldRemit as a benefit – they offer much more affordable international money transfers. They’re also a partner on our own benefits platform!

Physical and mental health benefits

Your employees are dealing with many stressors right now – from feeling anxiety around their job security to worrying about the health and safety of their family members – which can come with negative physical and mental health side effects. To help them combat these potential problems, you may want to consider the following benefits:

Wellness budget. If you have the funds to do so, consider giving each employee a wellness budget. They can use this money to invest in self care. For example, they can use this budget to cover the cost of a massage, new running shoes, or an online meditation course – anything that helps improve and maintain their sense of well being.

Fitness subsidisation. Staying active can go a long way. And the great news is that there are tons of virtual fitness classes these days. So whether it’s an online yoga course or a cycling class, pay for your employees to indulge in their favorite exercise routines – it gives them one less thing to worry about cost wise and encourages them to get moving.

Healthy snack delivery service. If you want to make healthy eating more accessible for your employees and boost their morale, provide them with delicious snacking options! Companies like Snacks With Bite will deliver healthy snacks directly to your employees’ homes. It’s one less decision they have to make, and it’s something they can share with the rest of their family.

Family benefits

As schools start to close down again due to the new wave of outbreaks, parents are scrambling to figure out how to balance work and family life for the second time. Not receiving the pay rise they were expecting can further exacerbate your employees’ stress levels. To help, here are a few benefits you can offer:

Childcare support. If your working parents do find themselves back at home with the kids, give them the funds to hire additional childcare support. Maybe they can have a trusted babysitter take care of the kids in the morning, when they’re the busiest with work. Or they can hire an in-home chef to prepare healthy meals for the family if they don’t have time to.

Fun family activities. It’s challenging for parents to always think of new, stimulating things to do with their children. To help, send your working parents “family care packages” that contain fun activities – such as puzzles, at-home scavenger hunts, or s’mores kits. This is one less thing that your employees have to think about and gives them a reason to spend quality time with their families.

Even though your employees will be disappointed to not receive the pay rise they’ve been waiting for, they’ll appreciate your efforts to compensate them in other ways in the meantime. Take care of your employees’ needs during this challenging time, and you’re likely to see a more engaged and productive workforce.

Want to give your team access to more employee benefits and discounts? Flare Employee Benefits gives your workforce access to an exclusive benefits and discount platform of leading retailers like Woolworths, JB Hi-Fi and Amazon. If you’re looking to implement more employees benefits in your company, reach out to [email protected] to learn more.

Simple strategies to promote emotional wellbeing in your workplace

Posted on July 20, 2020August 11, 2023 by Chris James

We live in an increasingly stressful world. Everything from rising costs to escalating pressures in the workplace are contributing to mental health issues in our employees. Given this, prioritising emotional wellbeing is more important than ever. But what exactly is preventing our workers from achieving emotional wellness, and what can we do to help? These are questions we’ll address in the rest of this post.

Why is emotional wellbeing important?

As of 2019, 50.6% of the Australian workforce had experienced a mental health condition, and two in five of those workers reported that their workplace either caused their condition or made it worse. These work-related mental health conditions cost approximately $543 million of workers compensation and $750 million in life insurance claims paid to Australians each year.

It’s clear that emotional wellbeing, or lack thereof, is a huge problem that infiltrates the workplace. There are a few reasons why it’s important for employers to address this problem head on: first, since one of the main sources of stress is from work, it’s every company’s responsibility to help alleviate some of that burden. Secondly, without addressing emotional wellbeing, we can’t expect our employees to perform their best at work. Mental health issues can affect everything from an employee’s satisfaction with their job to the bottom line.

Related article: 5 Ways to help your employees improve their financial wellbeing

Barriers to emotional wellbeing

It seems as though more and more employers are investing in emotional wellbeing programs each year. But if this is the case, why do mental health issues continue to be a problem among Australian workers? It may be that the programs aren’t explicitly addressing the most common barriers to emotional wellbeing, which include:

Lack of education and training. A survey found the most common barrier to achieving an emotionally healthy workplace is lack of appropriate skills in managers. Therefore, investing in more training and education around mental health and wellbeing can help break down this particular barrier.

Fear of stigma. Even though the conversation around emotional wellbeing is becoming more commonplace, that doesn’t mean the stigma around mental health issues doesn’t exist. In fact, research has found that mental health is the issue Australian workers feel most uncomfortable discussing with their managers.

Access to the wrong resources. Finally, it may also be the case that you’re not offering the resources that employees actually need to improve their emotional wellbeing. Unless your decisions were backed by feedback and data from your workforce, there’s a good chance that your employee wellness program isn’t aligned with people’s mental health priorities.

In the next section, we’ll cover simple strategies that will help your organisation overcome these common barriers.

Related article: 10 Ideas to help you boost your employee engagement

3 simple strategies to promote emotional wellbeing at your company

Your emotional wellbeing strategies don’t have to be complicated or break the bank. Start off with one or all three of these strategies to start taking steps in the right direction:

1. Make mental health trainings a requirement

Sometimes mental health can be tough or uncomfortable to talk about. That’s completely natural. But that’s why we encourage HR teams to invest in mental health training – not just for employees, but also for the managers and leaders at the company as well.

These educational opportunities can give everyone the practice they need to navigate conversations about emotional wellbeing, respond with more empathy to people who are struggling, and understand what next steps might look like. While you don’t want your managers to play the role of therapist for your employees, they should – at the very least – know how to handle those initial conversations and connect their direct reports to the right resources.

2. Normalise conversations around emotional wellbeing

It’s unsurprising that Australian employees don’t feel comfortable talking about mental health at work. This usually stems from a fear of judgment or – worse – a fear that it’ll affect their career development. The best way to assuage these fears is to normalise conversations around mental health in the workplace so that your employees know this is a challenge that almost everyone is dealing with.

Don’t just wait for Mental Health Month to have these conversations – instead, make it a normal and accepted part of your company culture. There are several ways to accomplish this: ask your leaders and managers to speak openly about their own mental health struggles; create safe spaces or Employee Resource Groups where people can speak openly about emotional wellbeing; and make it ok to take mental health days.

3. Customize your benefits offerings

This may also be a good time to revisit your benefits offerings. Even if you have an incredible benefits package that gives employees stipends for massages or virtual therapy sessions, that doesn’t mean it’s what your workforce needs. Maybe it turns out that they’d rather have flexible working hours and more mental health days instead.

The only way to find out what your employees truly need is to ask them. You can do this through one-on-one conversations or, if you have a bigger organisation, send out a wellbeing survey to identify the current gaps in your benefits. Once you have this information in hand, you can actually customise your offerings to align with your employees’ priorities.

Don’t overlook emotional wellbeing when it comes to your overall HR strategy. The mental health of your employees has the potential to make a huge impact on their happiness, productivity, and desire to stay with your organisation. Use our strategies to demonstrate that you care and to promote the importance of emotional wellbeing in your workplace.

If you have any employees who are in need of support, be sure to check out The Flare Wellness Network, a free hub designed to support Australian workers by giving them access to benefits and offers, while encouraging businesses to partner together in an effort to support the wellbeing of the Australian workforce.

If you’re looking for an additional HR software to support your business, Flare offers a free onboarding software with employee management and benefits. To learn more, please request a demo.

Managing COVID in the hospitality industry with Shaun McDonald from Lucas Group

Posted on July 14, 2020October 17, 2023 by Chris James

Lucas Group has six restaurants across Sydney and Melbourne including Chin Chin, Kisumé, Gogo Bar, Baby Pizza and more. Their aim is to provide exceptional dining experiences which redefine the boundaries of expectations and excite the senses. In this interview, we chat to Shaun McDonald, the General Manager of People and Development, about how Lucas Group have been managing COVID in the hospitality industry.

Tell us about the impact of the pandemic on LUCAS Group

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the restaurant industry, including LUCAS Group, was required to close as non-essential services. The impact on our business resulted in us having to stand down 650 people during that time, and changing our business operations.

Our main priority was around our people. Every decision we made was about putting our people first, communicating regularly, and executing on a strategy that supported our people as much as possible throughout the pandemic.

We shifted to ‘takeaway’ business operations within 48 hours and reopened our brand — something that we’ve never done before. The sole reason for this shift was to support those people that would not be eligible for financial assistance from the government. 30 percent of our crew are from overseas.

The Job Keeper Program was introduced by the government a few weeks later, which was great for our people. It was another mechanism for us to support our crew. We applied immediately, and were able to support our stood down crew.

How did you manage communications with your staff?

Strong communication was critical for us during this time. We focused on crafting messaging that was concise and clear, and enabled managers to share messages aligned to our CEO’s direction. Managers were provided tools and training, so they could communicate with their people.

At every level of our organisation, we ensured people understood the new direction, that they knew what to do in their roles, were trained up effectively and ready to fight. We needed to ensure our systems and processes were set up to effectively deliver the same quality in house in a takeaway model.

Training was so crucial to helping people understand what to do, as their roles changed — and to deliver exceptional service to our guests and bring that level of comfort.

What are your return to work strategies and plans?

As we transition our business from being a takeaway back into a restaurant, there are a few safety precautions we needed to make to our workplace so our crew felt comfortable to return to work. At the beginning, things were changing on a daily basis, constant updates, changes to legislation and changes to the job so we needed to keep up to date.

When we reopened we wanted to make sure that, we had done everything as a business to make sure that our people were safe, and explained to them that we were meeting social distancing guidelines and being compliant.

We also educated our managers to make sure that the messaging was the same. This brought a level of comfort to our crew. We’ve actually received a lot of positive feedback about the level of communications that came out of the clear and the concise messaging that was distributed.

We had to go through lots of planning to ensure which employees we would stand up and planning how we would layout our restaurant to adhere to social distancing restrictions. If any of our staff had reservations about coming back to a guest facing role, we put some of them into back of house roles so they would be more comfortable. We made sure that we communicated to our staff so that they knew we were running our venues safely and we were adhering to all the requirements set by the government.

How do you ensure that your employees are engaged and feel safe after returning to work?

Pulse surveys have been a great for us to ensure that people are comfortable with being back in the work environment. We’ve been able to get feedback and jump on any changes that we possibly need to make to make sure that people feel safe and they feel comfortable at work.

Related article: 10 Ideas to help you boost your employee engagement

Learn more about how Shaun McDonald used Flare to engage with employees through digital onboarding and benefits in this case study. If you’re looking for an additional HR software to support your business, Flare offers a free onboarding software with employee management and benefits. To learn more, please request a demo.

Why providing financial literacy for employees is important

Posted on July 13, 2020August 11, 2023 by Chris James

Everyone is familiar with the concept of literacy, which refers to one’s ability to read and write. It’s a skill that clearly has a huge impact on everyday life. But what people might be less familiar with is the idea of financial literacy, which is having the knowledge to make informed decisions about one’s financial situation – from budgeting to investing to saving.

Unfortunately, Australians have long struggled with financial literacy. A study found that only 50% of men and 35% of women were able to answer five basic financial questions correctly. The good news: there’s an opportunity for employers to step up and help improve the financial literacy of their employees. We explore how in this blog post.

The importance of financial literacy

Before we dive in, it’s important to establish why financial literacy is such a critical skill to invest in. The short answer is that financial literacy leads to better financial health. And there’s a lot of research to support the fact that poor financial health creates many problems for employees – from health problems to anxiety, which eventually leads in lost revenue for companies.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the statistics:

Two in five Australian workers experience financial stress during their careers
As a result, these employees take an extra 2.4 sick days per year
1 in 5 employees also admit to being less productive at work because of financial stress
This costs Australian businesses an estimated $31.1 billion per year in lost revenue

Looking at these numbers, it’s clear that improving the financial literacy of employees should be a top priority for organisations.

Barriers to financial literacy in Australia

So what exactly is it that’s preventing people from being financially literate? We can generally attribute low financial literacy to a lack of access in three categories:

1. Education. By far the biggest barrier to financial literacy is a lack of access to financial education. To have the confidence to make smart financial decisions, one first has to be equipped with the knowledge to do so. Unfortunately, financial topics aren’t built into our education system, which means that many people reach adulthood without an understanding of how to manage their money or save for long-term milestones.

2. Tools. To improve financial literacy, it’s not enough to simply memorise information. That knowledge needs to be put into action. But employees may find themselves feeling overwhelmed or require some assistance to get started. That’s where access to financial tools – which can serve as the bridge that helps people go from having knowledge to taking action – may be useful.

3. Professional support. Finally, it’s important to recognise that financial topics are inherently complex – which is a large part of what makes financial literacy so difficult to achieve. This means that almost everyone could benefit from receiving professional support to help answer questions and guide their decisions.

In the next section, we’ll share a few recommendations to help lower the barriers to entry when it comes to these three categories.

How to help your employees build financial literacy

When it comes to your own employees, there are many ways you can improve their financial literacy. This will, in turn, help their sense of financial wellbeing and lead to decreased stress, boosted productivity, and less revenue lost for your organisation.

Related article: 5 Ways to help your employees improve their financial wellbeing

Education

To increase access to education, consider offering financial wellness benefits that provide employees with the space to learn more about relevant topics. This can come in the form of online courses, in-person trainings, or even printed materials that your HR team puts together. The most important part is to make sure these educational resources are accessible to your entire employee population. Here’s how:

Raise awareness. If employees aren’t aware that these educational resources exist, then they won’t use them. Throughout the year, send out reminders to employees – whether it’s through email, Slack, or in-person announcements – that make them aware these benefits are available to them.

Offer various formats. Not everyone enjoys learning through an online course. Similarly, some people don’t enjoy reading through printed materials. So where possible, try to offer a variety of educational formats to match the specific needs of your employees. Better yet, consider using a survey to make data-driven decisions.

Tools

As we mentioned before, tools are a great way to encourage employees to take action on the financial knowledge they acquire. There are many types of financial tools you can offer your employees, such as real-time payments or budgeting apps to make money management easier. The tricky part, of course, is getting employees to actually use the tools you offer. Here are a few tips to improve adoption:

Create incentives. Consider building in incentives for employees to use the financial tools that are available to them. For example, perhaps you can “gamify” the budgeting app so that every time an employee uses it, they collect points and can eventually win a prize of their choosing. Or you can incentivise more superannuation contributions by “matching” however much they add to their accounts, up to a certain amount.

Make it social. Believe it or not, there are ways to make finances fun for your employees. One way is to make using financial tools a social experience. Create a financial health support group, which employees can voluntarily join to talk about their favorite tools or their personal finance goals. Or, with permission, share employee testimonials on the intranet or at the next all-hands meeting about how much they’ve benefited from using the financial tools provided to them. This may inspire others to adopt those same tools!

Professional support

You can also offer professional services, such as financial advising or counseling, as part of your financial wellness benefits. You, as an HR leader, can also offer up your expertise on topics like salaries and retirement savings. Having access to an expert who can answer questions or explain tricky concepts is an effective way to improve an employee’s financial literacy. Of course, talking about money to you or a professional may feel uncomfortable for employees. To help, we have some recommendations:

Normalise the conversation. Make finances a normal conversation to have in the workplace. To encourage this mindset: train your managers to openly answer questions about salaries; Host lunch and learn about financial topics; And encourage support groups where employees can discuss finances in a safe space.

Have company leaders set an example. One of the best ways to encourage employees to have more conversations about finances is to have your company leaders set an example. For instance, have your CEO share that he or she also uses the company’s financial counseling resource. Seeing someone in a leadership position get help with their own financial situation may inspire others to do the same.

Financial literacy is so critical in determining the overall success, wellbeing, and productivity of your employees. As an organisation, you have the opportunity to unlock financial resources that they might not have access to otherwise. Start with one or two of our recommendations to help improve your employees’ financial wellbeing.

If you have any employees who are in need of support, be sure to check out Wellness@Work, a free hub designed to support HR and Australian workers by giving them access to free content.

Related article: 10 Ideas to help you boost your employee engagement

If you’re looking for an additional HR software to support your business, Flare offers a free onboarding software with employee management and benefits. To learn more, please request a demo.

10 appealing employee benefits companies should consider

Posted on July 6, 2020August 9, 2023 by Chris James

Employers understand that they play a huge role when it comes to helping their employees succeed both in and out of the workplace. But you may be wondering: how do we support every individual’s needs when we have a rapidly growing organisation? The answer lies in employee benefits.

Employee benefits are additional forms of compensation that are provided to employees in addition to their salaries. They’re a great way to address the needs of your workers and can easily be scaled. To ensure that you’re only investing in the most impactful offerings, we put together a list of 10 employee benefits that we believe will have the most positive effect on your workforce.

Why are employee benefits important?

The average employee spends one-third of his or her life at work. Given this, workers have very limited time to tend to other aspects of their life – whether that’s family, personal passions, or health. By offering a variety of benefits, employers can make this balancing act a bit easier for their employees by providing them with the resources, tools, or opportunities needed to take care of their personal and professional needs.

There are business advantages to offering employee benefits as well. These types of offerings have been proven to improve company culture, boost productivity, and increase retention rates – all of which can lead to significant cost savings for your organisation.

Below, we share 10 types of employee benefits to consider.

Mental health

The unfortunate reality is that we’re living in an increasingly stressful world. This is reflected by the fact that more than half (55%) of Australian employees feel stressed at work. One of the most effective ways to help employees manage this stress is to offer mental health benefits. These can come in the form of tools and resources to help your employees relax, work through their problems, and build resilience.

Examples of mental health benefits:

Online therapy or counselling services
Meditation or mindfulness apps
Paid time off for mental health days

Related article: 10 Ideas to help you boost your employee engagement

Physical health

Physical health is an extremely important component of employee wellness as well. Whether it’s helping your employees stay active or better manage any illnesses they’re dealing with, benefits that improve physical health can make a huge difference to your workforce.

Examples of physical health benefits:

Flexible wellness budgets
Subsidised gym memberships
Annual health screenings
Chronic disease management or smoking cessation programs

Family

Juggling the demands of both work and family is challenging. To ease some of the burden, employers can offer benefits that either financially support family-specific needs or make the integration between home life and the office a bit more seamless.

Examples of family benefits:

Flexible childcare spending accounts
Adoption, surrogacy, or in vitro fertilisation support
Daycare center at the office
Monthly family-friendly work events

Commuter

As businesses start to re-open after COVID-19, we’re likely to see an uptick in commuting. Getting to and from work can easily be one of the most stressful parts of an employee’s day, as they battle terrible traffic or sit on the bus for long periods of time, just to get to their 9 a.m. meeting on time. Fortunately, there are commuter benefits you can offer to minimise the impact.

Examples of commuter benefits:

Subsidised public transportation passes
Employee parking spots
Flexible schedules that allow employees to commute during off-hours

Financial well-being

Two out of five Australian workers experience financial stress during their careers. This makes it clear why financial wellness benefits are becoming an increasingly important part of wellness programs for many organisations. Offering benefits to boost the financial health of your employees can help reduce anxiety and help them reach long-term goals like buying a home or starting a family.

Examples of financial well-being benefits:

Financial counseling
Real-time payments
Financial education courses
Additional superannuation contributions

Related article: 5 Ways to help your employees improve their financial wellbeing

Professional development

A study found that one of the ‘must have’ benefits that Australian employees expect to receive is training and development on the job. To keep people feeling fulfilled and engaged at work, you have to provide them with opportunities to grow – not only professionally, but personally as well. Benefits are a great way to encourage this type of development.

Examples of professional development benefits:

Learning and development budget
Monthly training opportunities
Coaching or mentoring programs

Flexible work

One of the other ‘must have’ benefits for Australian employees is flexible work arrangements. Increasingly, people are looking for the ability to choose when and where they work. That’s why companies that offer flexible work benefits, such as accommodating remote working options, are likely to attract and retain top talent.

Examples of flexible work:

Work from home days
At-home office budget
Flexibility to set a personal schedule

Pets

Did you know that 62% of Australian households own a pet? Your employees likely view their dogs and cats as part of the family. This can make it stressful for workers to leave their pets at home all day or deal with a sick animal. Offering pet-focused benefits that relieve some of the financial burdens or allow pets to be in the office with their humans can have a positive impact on your employees.

Examples of pet-friendly benefits:

Pet-friendly office
Subsidised pet care
Paid time off to take care of a new pet

Recognition

Introducing benefits that are focused on recognizing the hard work of your employees can be a powerful way to keep them feeling motivated and appreciated. There are many types of recognition programs you can introduce to your organisation.

Examples of recognition benefits:

Experiential recognition program
Peer-to-peer recognition program
Company value awards

Social

Having the opportunity to connect with other teammates can be hugely beneficial to employees. Not only does it encourage collaboration, but it ensures that people know they have a community to turn to. There are several socially-focused benefits you can offer to encourage these bonding moments at work.

Examples of social benefits:

Monthly team outings
Budget for coffee dates or lunches with colleagues
Company-wide gatherings or events

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