What is financial wellness? - with Ellie Austin-Williams

Introducing Ellie Austin-Williams, our new expert-in-residence for financial wellness. Ellie is a certified money coach who founded the blog, This Girl Talks Money, which aims to tackle what some consider to be the last taboo: money

Despite having a successful career in law for many years, Ellie still felt disillusioned due to a lack of general financial know-how, realizing she was probably not the only one. Ellie took matters into her own hands by establishing her own financial education and coaching platform.

She’s previously worked with the likes of Monzo, Refinery29 and The Huffington Post. We’re delighted to welcome Ellie, and we are excited to show you how to help your employees and customers with their finances.

Check out the below video for a little taster of what to expect:

What is financial wellness?

If you were to ask your friends and colleagues ‘what is financial wellness’, they’d probably give varying answers, but ultimately financial wellness can be defined as your happiness and your relationship with money, as well as your feelings of control around your finances.

Just like your physical and mental wellness, financial wellness is completely individual to you. Therefore, what you consider to be a good level of financial wellness will be completely different to somebody else.

Why is employee financial wellness important?

Worries over financial wellness have a significant impact on employees and, in turn, a big impact on business. The pandemic and its implications have magnified financial concerns for many employees, only adding to growing stress and worry already felt by employees.

Financial wellness at work is essential. 78% of employees rely on finance options, such as credit cards, in order to source money quickly between paydays.

Financial stress is reported to impact employees’ sleep (38%), social life (29%), relationships (29%) and health (23%).

A study found that a whopping 80% of employers discovered that financial stress was lowering employee performance. A further 96% of employers think financial wellness at work is something their employees want and would benefit from.

How do you boost employee financial wellness?

Quite simply, through education. And that’s exactly why Ellie is here to help.

85% of employees cited financial education as extremely important to them. 87% of employees felt that being in control of their finances was more important than earning as much as possible.

Ellie will guide employees on the Dialogue platform through a series of practical solutions, strategies, and action plans so that employees can create their own healthy financial habits that get results. Employees will be able to boost their overall financial wellness and reduce their stress as they learn more and take action.

Personalised action plans, practical strategies and financial health and wellbeing tips are all available to your employees exclusively on Dialogue to help them become happier, healthier and wealthier.

Find out how our Corporate Wellness platform can help support your staff’s wellness needs.