Login

Why financial wellbeing is important in the workplace

Improving employee wellbeing is one of the top priorities of HR leaders today. But what many people don’t realise is that 1.2 million households are currently suffering from financial stress. Therefore financial wellbeing is actually what sits at the centre of holistic wellness and has the potential to drive the most significant impact on working Australians. In this post, we’ll explain how to improve financial wellbeing in your workplace. 

Financial wellbeing initiatives to bring into the workplace

Thankfully, there are many financial wellbeing initiatives that you can introduce to your employees. We share some of the most impactful ones below, along with an explanation of how they’ll improve the financial wellness levels of your workforce. 

Novated car leasing

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. With this arrangement, your employee is paying down a certain amount for a specified period of time. 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.  

How this supports financial wellbeing:

One of the benefits of a novated lease is the tax break. Since the payments are coming out of your employee’s pre-tax income, your employee’s taxable income will be significantly reduced. Plus, your employees won’t have to worry about things like the goods and services tax (GST), which means they’ll have much more disposable income to use for their other needs. 

Flexible pay 

Flexible pay gives employees the ability to choose when they get paid – instead of following the organisation’s payroll schedule. For example, instead of receiving a paycheck every two weeks, an employee can choose to cash out on a weekly basis or even in real time. The whole purpose of this system is to allow employees to choose a compensation schedule that works for their specific needs and lifestyle. 

How this supports financial wellbeing: 

As you might imagine, flexible pay can ease a lot of financial anxiety for employees. Instead of worrying about whether they’ll receive a paycheck in time to pay rent or cover a credit card bill, flexible pay allows them to access the money whenever they need it. 

Superannuation 

Superannuation is money that’s set aside by your employer for your retirement – on top of your salary and wages. Employers are required by Australian law to make superannuation contributions for most of their employees and typically pay a minimum of 9.5% of ordinary time earnings.

How this supports financial wellbeing: 

Superannuation is one of the best financial benefits for employees because it guarantees that they’ll have funds to use in retirement. Workers can also decide to make additional contributions to their own account or might be eligible to receive contributions from the Australian government, which can further increase the amount of retirement savings they accumulate.

Investment vehicles

There are many investment vehicle options that you can introduce to your employees – from managed funds to share schemes with your own company. Regardless of which ones you make available to your workforce, the most important part is educating them so they can decide which option is best for them. This can be done through training or financial literacy workshops.  

How this supports financial wellbeing: 

Helping employees find ways to invest and grow their money over time will help them in the long run – whether it’s when they retire or run into an emergency where they might need additional funds to dip into. 

Lost super consolidation

It’s possible for employees to lose track of some of their super. This typically happens when they change their job or address. As an employer, you can provide the resources to help workers find their lost super, consolidate it with the rest of their contributions, and identify which account they want their future contributions to go to. 

How this supports financial wellbeing: 

Employees can save money by consolidating their super into one account. Having multiple accounts can accumulate fees, not to mention that having multiple sources of contributions can be difficult to manage. 

Life insurance

The purpose of life insurance is to offer protection to employees and their loved ones in case of an unexpected life event. There are different life insurance products they can choose from that protect them from different types of events – whether that’s a death, a terminal illness diagnosis, or a bad accident. 

How this supports financial wellbeing: 

This is a wonderful initiative for employers to introduce because it gives workers peace of mind when it comes to unexpected life events. The last thing an employee wants to worry about after a car accident or diagnosis is to have to worry about finances, and life insurance is a great safeguard against that. 

There are many effective initiatives that can increase your employees’ levels of financial wellness and – as a result – their overall wellbeing. Simply start with a few of the ideas that stood out to you in this post and go from there. 

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 HR can help employees with financial wellbeing outside of salary

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.

Understanding the finances of your international workforce

For Australian employers there are many considerations to be taken into account when employing people from overseas. One that may not be so obvious is understanding the financial circumstances of these employees with international backgrounds.

For example, did you know that many international employees may have loved ones living overseas with a financial responsibility to regularly send a proportion of their earnings back home? This financial assistance, known as ‘remittances’ supports their loved ones with daily living expenses like paying for rent, utilities, groceries, health and education.

This following article outlines some of these considerations and the role you can play as an employer to support your employees.

Global Remittances

Remittances are an essential source of income for millions of families around the world and remitters play a key role in the social and economic development of their countries.

In 2019, global remittances reached a record US$554 billion and they are instrumental in many countries. For example, personal remittances received in Nepal made up over a quarter of the country’s GDP in 2019. In the Philippines, it is a well-established cultural practice to head overseas to work. In fact, 2.2 million, at any time, of these overseas Filipino workers are engaged in industries as diverse as healthcare to seafaring. From Australia, both India and China are also substantial recipients of remittances. Many remitters will see their remittance as a non-negotiable financial commitment, in the same vein as Australians might regard their mortgage payment. Behaviour varies, but many remitters will send money home as many as four times a month. 

Financial Access

Like all employees, migrants working in Australia require an Australian bank account to receive their salary. Fortunately, unlike other countries, it is very easy to set up, with the ability to apply for one online regardless of location, with many free or low-cost options. 

However, for recent arrivals to Australia, applying for credit cards is not as simple. Banks will usually require some credit history here in Australia before granting even a small credit limit. This can place a credit card off limits for new arrivals, which can be a source of frustration for migrants who have enjoyed well established financial affairs in their original home country.

Tax and Super

The rules relating to taxation and superannuation are complex, and vary according to the individual circumstances of your employees. 

In general, many people from overseas who have worked and earned super while visiting Australia on a temporary visa, can apply to have their super paid to them as a departing Australia superannuation payment (DASP) after they leave.

On tax, as long as foreign residents have earned more than $1 in Australia during the financial year they can choose to lodge a tax return. This lodgement can even be done online in your employees’ home countries after they depart. If your employees are leaving Australia permanently, they may be eligible to lodge an Australian tax return early. In this instance the process is offline and is known to  take longer.

The monies received from a superannuation payment or a tax refund, regardless of amount, is highly valued as an extra boost of financial support for when your international employees are returning to their home country.

What can you do as an employer

Understanding the unique financial considerations of your international and migrant workforce is a great first step, but there are also a few practical ways you can help:

  • Sending money home: For remitters, maximising the amount their friends and family receive whilst ensuring the security of the transfers is paramount. Due to lack of awareness, many new arrivals will default to using their bank to transfer money home. However, the Australian Government (in the ACCC’s 2019 report) expressly highlighted that using digital non-bank alternatives, such as WorldRemit, can be a cheaper and faster way to send money home. Also, for employees who are working in remote locations, the fact that these services are fully digital means they can be accessed from a smartphone at any time (without having to visit a bank branch or agent location). Helping make your employees aware of these alternatives, can ensure their families and friends are receiving the greatest amount possible by way of remittances without delay.
  • Financial access: As employees establish themselves in Australia, you may find they come to you more frequently than others for proof of income or employment, as they navigate the likes of housing and credit applications. Bear in mind your company expenses policy, where they require employees to front large expenses before being reimbursed, may be unduly burdensome (or not possible) for new arrivals who don’t have a credit card.
  • Tax and Super: Each individual is different so the best thing you can do is direct your employees to the ATO website, which has extensive resources relating to international tax and access to superannuation. The ATO guidance suggests that employees check with their employer before they depart to make sure that all super contributions have been paid – so don’t be surprised if you receive these sorts of queries from your team.

WorldRemit is currently offering the first three transfers free to all Flare users. You can access WorldRemit through the Flare employee benefits portal.

The minimum wage has been increased by 1.75% – here’s what you need to know

In the Annual Wage Review on Friday June 19, the Fair Work Commission made a decision to increase the minimum wage by $13 per week for all awards. While this decision was lower than the recommendations from the union, who wanted a 4% increase, this change will impact millions of Australians on minimum wage.

The Fair Work Commission has increased the minimum wage in a bid to ensure that households on minimum wage don’t fall into poverty and significant disadvantage as a result of the economic downturn.

How much was the minimum wage increased by?

The increase of 1.75% will increase the minimum wage to $753.80 per week, or an hourly rate of $19.84.

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

How does this impact employers?

All employees working in Australia are entitled to a minimum wage. Employers who have employees on minimum wage will need to ensure that they follow the new minimum wages set by the Fair Work Commission.

The increases to award wages will start on 3 different dates for different awards. The first wave will come into effect on July 1 for workers on the front line of the pandemic — such as healthcare, education, childcare and other essential services.

The second round of increases will begin at the start of November, and the final stage in February next year, when workers in tourism, hospitality and retail will have their minimum wage increased.

For anyone not covered by an award or an enterprise agreement, the new national minimum wage will be $753.80 per week or $19.84 per hour. This applies from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2020

How can you ensure you’re compliant with the minimum wage?

Check the updates on the Fair Work Commission website to see how this will affect your business and industry.

In the Annual Wage Review on Friday June 19, the Fair Work Commission made a decision to increase the minimum wage by $13 per week for all awards. While this decision was lower than the recommendations from the union, who wanted a 4% increase, this change will impact millions of Australians on minimum wage. The […]