Could you be digging in the wrong place when it comes to profitability and workplace satisfaction?

You could save £1000 per employee and improve your people's workplace satisfaction

One thing the Budget is on course to do if we believe the media speculation is harm business and in doing so their employees.

So what can employers do to protect their businesses?

It’s time to dig deeper but not where one might immediately think of.

Earl Nightingale the esteemed personal development author and speaker once told the parable of a farmer who sold his land to search for diamonds, only for the new owner to discover a vast diamond mine right under his feet.

Nightingale’s lesson — what we seek is often already in our possession — has never been more relevant to British employers.

The missing ingredient

Today, organisations are searching for productivity gains, growth, competitiveness and performance improvements. Yet many overlook the extraordinary source of value already sitting inside their business: the financial wellbeing of their workforce.

To their credit, the focus of mental health support in the workplace has been astronomical since 2015, with 90% of employers active, yet mental health issues as a reason for absence are still on the rise.

Why?

Across every sector, financial stress has become one of the UK’s most serious — and least discussed — economic constraints.

According to Citizens Advice, four million households are in a negative budget.

Mental Health First Aid England reports 41% of employees say financial pressure is their biggest stressor, and 52% say money worries harm their ability to perform at work.

Centre for Economics and Business Research estimates employers lose £10.3bn annually from absence and presenteeism linked to financial stress, while wider estimates put the total productivity drag closer to £120bn.

Yet despite this scale, Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development finds that around half of UK employers still have no financial wellbeing policy, and only 14% take a strategic approach.

Financial wellbeing remains the least developed area of workplace wellbeing — despite being one of the most economically damaging and having the biggest impact on people’s mental health.

Pressure is building inside organisations

A recent PayFit report revealed one in five employees has requested a pay advance just to get through to payday. This is not an isolated issue — it is a sign of systemic financial instability across the workforce.

For employers, the cost of doing nothing is now quantifiable.

These are not “soft costs” — they show up in reduced output, lost time, higher churn, lower quality and weaker customer experience.

51% of adults are behind on at least one major bill a month.

The Money and Pensions Service (2023) stated 20.7 million people need or close to needing debt advice if their circumstances didn’t improve (15% and 24% respectively) which is a staggering 39% of the adult population. And it’s getting worse.

Citizens Advice (2025) reported 51% of debt clients helped had a negative budget this August, meaning that they didn’t have enough income to cover the fundamentals, such as shelter, energy and food.

Employees worrying about, mortgages, rent, debt or rising bills cannot consistently deliver high performance — not because they lack ability, but because financial strain impairs focus, decision-making, creativity and resilience.

A financially stressed workforce becomes:

• more distracted whilst working

• more absent (4.9 days lost a year per worker)

• more likely to leave (76% of employees would move to an organisation they perceive cares about their financial wellbeing)

• more prone to errors

• more difficult to retain

• less capable of innovation

  
  

Costly unspoken truth

Yet support systems inside organisations remain underdeveloped.

This leaves financial anxiety unspoken, unmanaged and far more costly than leaders realise.

Business leaders talk about productivity, growth and competitiveness. But these ambitions are impossible to unlock if employees are operating under constant financial strain. You cannot build a high-performance culture on top of financial instability.

Time to think of financial wellbeing as a lever for success not a nice to have

The most forward-thinking organisations are beginning to recognise this. They are shifting from seeing financial wellbeing as a “benefit” to viewing it as an economic lever. And when they support employees with a structured employee financial wellbeing support programme that at its heart has people in place with the skills, training and knowledge to:

·       identify when someone is struggling

·       hold empowering empathetic conversations

·       provide practical guidance and support

·       know which tools and resources to use

·       reassuringly signpost to experts

The results are measurable: fewer sick days, stronger retention, higher engagement and ROI that can reach 4–7x, even within a year.

The message is simple: your acres of diamonds are already inside your organisation:

It doesn’t need a pay rise to reverse the effects of poor financial wellbeing on your people and organisation

Leaders don’t necessarily need to search the world for growth or give bigger pay rises (though it does help) but dig deeper into the potential of their own people.

When employees are financially well, they don’t just survive — they thrive. And when they thrive, so do the organisations they power.

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