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Big Business Insights: Why financial wellness programmes don't always work
This episode of the Big Business Insights podcast discusses the shifting landscape of financial wellbeing in South African workplaces, particularly in the context of the country's retirement preparations and widespread financial literacy issues.
Blessing Utete hosts a conversation with Fatima Vawda, a Director of the Association of Savings and Investments South Africa, and Mlamuli Mbambo, Managing Director of Money Fundi, financial educator, coach and author.
Why do some employees not make use of their workplace financial wellness programmes, even if they can clearly be used to their advantage? Can employee engagement with financial wellness programmes be improved? What kinds of strategies can be used to do so? Creative approaches like storytelling, gamification, and peer-to-peer learning are impactful ways to approach these sometimes tricky dynamics. Listen to this episode to find out.
Resources used in this episode:
10x.co.za: 10X Retirement Reality Report
Businesstech.co.za: How much money you need to retire in South Africa
Oldmutual.co.za: What is the Financial Wellbeing Programme?
NYU StudentLink YouTube: What is Financial Literacy? | Introduction
SABC News YouTube: Financial literacy challenges for SA: Mamapudi Nkgadima weighs in
Old Mutual Corporate Big Business Insights Podcast Ep.4 - Conquering financial fear: Trusting workplace financial well-being programmes
Blessing Utete: In the past, financial wellness wasn't something people talked about much in the workplace. Retirement, that was something your employer handled, while day to day financial matters were left to you to figure out on your own but things have changed, and so have the expectations.
Today, with an increasing shift towards individual financial responsibility, people are expected to actively plan for their futures, yet many employees still feel unprepared. South Africa is facing a retirement crisis with only 6 percent of the population on track to retire comfortably, as revealed in the recent Old Mutual Thought Leaders Forum research. Based on findings from the 2023 Brand Atlas survey, which tracks the lifestyles of over 15 million economically active South Africans, the report highlights that many South Africans still haven't made formal plans for life after work.
Even among those who have, few feel confident about their ability to maintain financial security in the long term amid inflation and economic instability. This concerning reality is compounded by the fact that nearly half of the adult population is living below the poverty line, according to StatsSA.
NYU StudentLink YouTube Link: Financial education is the ability to understand and effectively apply various financial skills, including, but not limited, to personal financial management, budgeting, savings, and investing.
Blessing Utete: Employee financial well being programs can add value here, but there's a problem. They're not always used as effectively as they could be, but why not?
Welcome to the Big Business Insights podcast brought to you by Old Mutual Corporate. I'm your host, Blessing Utete, the Managing Executive at Old Mutual Corporate Consultants. By meeting thought leaders and visionaries across sectors, looking at the past, the present, and the future, we aim to give business leaders the 360 degree advantage.
Our expert guests today are here to help us unpack why financial wellness matters, how trust plays a pivotal role in the uptake of these programs, and what employers can do to support their employees. Joining me is Fatima Vawda, Founder and CEO of 27Four and Director at the Association of Savings and Investments, South Africa.
Fatima Vawda: Thank you for having me, Blessing.
Blessing Utete: We're also joined by Mlamuli Mbambo, MD of Manifundi and a financial education speaker, coach, and author.
Mlamuli Mbambo: Thank you. Thank you for having me. Blessing.
Blessing Utete: It's really great to have both of you here and just to get your expertise and knowledge around this topic around financial wellness.
Blessing Utete: Maybe just to start off Fatima, you've really had a front row seat in terms of financial challenges employees face. Why do you think so many people struggle to engage with workplace financial well being programs, even when they're available?
Fatima Vawda: Yeah, I mean, I believe that the issue really stems from three core challenges. What I found working with employers and employees over my two decades in the financial services sector has been things like accessibility, education, and trust has been kind of the big issues. Many employees, I found, don't tend to trust financial services providers or their employers to prioritize their interests and this trust or this form of distrust is often rooted in past experiences with opaque financial products or predatory practices.
There was a recent report released by the Alderman Trust Barometer, and it revealed that out of all the sectors, financial services, consistently rank among the least trusted industries globally, and this is largely driven by a lack of faith in financial institutions, and it's been triggered by economic anxiety, a lot of disinformation, class divide, leadership failure so there's a lot of issues that are plaguing society at the moment.
But in South Africa, as an emerging economy, I think that accessibility is also a very big barrier. Financial wellness programs sometimes are not designed with financial inclusion in mind, so things like language, digital literacy, regional disparities, access to technology can all hinder engagement.
Employers in South Africa where socio-economic inequality is more kind of evident or pronounced, need to ensure that any kind of programs they introduce needs to cater to those employers and employees at all different income and educational levels.
Blessing Utete: You from a trust and, and just the education perspective, Mlamuli can come in here because I mean, his work focuses on financial education. Mlamuli, from your perspective, what are the main barriers that prevent employees from trusting programs in the workplace?
Mlamuli Mbambo: So for my experience, when I get called in, you know, you'd have the mental health person and people are really engaged. You'll have the fitness person and then the finance person comes up and you can literally see the room just go, okay. You're right and one of the comments I get often is after the talk, it's all the class, et cetera. They say, you know, I thought you were going to sell me life cover for no cover. I actually didn't realise that financial education is so much bigger than that. So I think with a lot of employee wellness programs, the employees have gotten used to you bringing a big financial services provider.
And unfortunately, some of either the financial advisors or the bank consultants tend to sell products instead of focusing on the education. The other one is, there's one of the talks I do is called Capital is the New Cattle. It seems that a lot of employees see money as Fatima shared, as for the elite. But I've also heard a lot of people see money as something that's a Western construct because the relationship that we had with cattle when cattle was essentially capital and wealth was a lot more healthy. So yes, I didn't really grow up on a farm, but I would visit my grandmother and I knew everything about a cow.
We used to have to wake up at 4 am, take the cows ediphini (water well in a kraal), I don't know why cows have to do it so early in the morning, but Hey, so I know cows, I know which piece is eaten by the married person or the widow or the matriarch, et cetera, et cetera. And I was saying that that's the similar relationship and knowledge we should have of capital and money.
So when we can look at money from that African perspective, I think that relevance really comes a lot stronger. And for example, in my book, Mkhulu Mbata, you know, he discusses financial education from African perspectives. Some have said, it felt like you gifted me wealthy grandparents, right, and then the other thing is the stigma when it's New Year's, right, so I'm sure we all have some years resolution. I'm struggling with one or two as well but when you start gym, you celebrate it, right? People go like, yeah, you've got a personal trainer. You're going to gym Walter, you can do it, you know, and there's a thousand likes, but if you were to post that, yeah, I'm seeing a financial coach or I'm seeing a financial advisor. There's a thing of a dim to the buzz or there's a negative stigma to that.
And the other thing that I've seen is a lot of employees have the mindset that employer just pay me more money. That's all I need from you, just give
me more and everything will be fine, which is actually incorrect because typically most people, the more they earn, the more they increase their expenses and they play a zero sum game. So those are some of the things that I've seen in my experience when I engage employers and employees.
Blessing Utete: What you're relating there is just, how do we make financial matters more relatable to the everyday person that's finding ways to manage their finances. Maybe Fatima, you want to add on there in terms of just how do we address the fear and I think Mlamuli has started to hint on, on how he works to, to address some of the fears that people have, but maybe from your perspective?
Fatima Vawda: Yeah, I totally agree with Mlamluli. I mean, the one area that he has raised and it's quite an important point is the stigma and in many cultures, financial discussions are kind of taboo. And in some cultures, you know, discussing personal finances may even be considered inappropriate, and I'd like to draw on an example of, and it may be a bit of a controversial example, but if we dial back to the 1980s and we think about the emergence of HIV in our communities and societies and the way we've normalized those conversations in today's era, and I believe if we can find the means and the mechanism by integrating these discussions and normalizing them in the same way in which South Africans have normalized the discussions around HIV and AIDS, that would be a huge win.
But I also believe that sometimes, and I see this when we do retirement benefits counselling to employers and employees, we find that sometimes employees, they avoid financial programs because they feel embarrassed or they feel ashamed of their financial situation, or sometimes also feel like it's too late to make any kind of meaningful change. Maybe they're very close to retirement and they feel that fear of procrastination, et cetera, is catching up with them. And a lot of these behavioural insights, you know, show that if we find the way of normalizing financial struggles, using a kind of positive reinforcement will help to mitigate these fears.
And lastly, again, in a country like South Africa, I cannot stress enough of the accessibility barriers to good financial education that we have because of the wide inequality and the gap between earners.
Blessing Utete: Yeah, there's a big discussion to be had around the destigmatization of financial issues and I think you started to talk about it in your earlier comment but when you think about an employer and the role that an employer plays, and you said you've been asked to come into some of those environments, what is that role? And how important is that role? And what needs to be done from the employer's perspective?
Mlamuli Mbambo: So from the employer's perspective, I think it is getting better in terms of the recognition, especially around driving mental health.
And then fortunately for financial wellness, it's as if financial wellness is piggybacking or finding a way in via the mental health discussion becoming normalized. I mean, as Fatima said, I wouldn't really remember
the eighties, but in the nineties, HIV still wasn't something that was just spoken about.
Mental health has done something similar where it used to be quite ignored, but now it's not as shameful or something to say, Hey, I'm seeing a psychologist or a therapist, something like that. Most times when I come in, it's usually like a mental wellness day type of thing and then they include financial wellness because one of the major reasons for stress is actually finances. So I think in that way we are coming in, but I do still think that employers underestimate. How much financial stresses actually affect productivity, focus, disengagement, and also labour attrition and the other thing is, an element that I've added in the financial education that actually the employer and the manager loves, is communicating to the employees, whether they're in a cost department, or they in a revenue generating department.
And for me, I found it strange that you can work in a space for 5, 10 years and not have clarity on whether this place is a cost saving space or it's a revenue generating space. Because if you understand that, then you have employees focusing on the key elements in that department, and when you have that performance discussion, it's no longer wishy washy. Yes, you smile when you come in in the morning, it's actually based on I saved this department this much because I'm in a cost saving space, or I thought of a new revenue generating thing, and we entered a market that you might not have delved into before. And based on that, may I have this what more needs to be done is on personalisation of the intervention?
So many times it feels as if employers are ticking a box of saying, Yeah, we had mental wellness, it was done, yes. On that day, on the 15th of Feb, this guy came and when I position the coaching element of things, many employers are saying, no, we don't think we need that and some employees do take it on their own account, but it's very sad when you, we deliver a workshop and then afterwards, so many people are coming with questions that are personal. But then, you know, you don't have the coaching version of things in order to address them.
Yesterday I had a coaching session with another client and he literally said to me, I did not know this was going to be so personal.
Blessing Utete: Financial wellbeing is such an important part of, uh, and you'd started to touch on it when you talked about productivity and the impact on absenteeism, et cetera. And it's so important for employers to have the right strategies to make these more effective, but I just want to hear from both of you, maybe starting with, with you, Fatima, you know, what are some of the ways of making this financial wellbeing more effective?
Fatima Vawda: Yeah, I mean, there's a whole lot of effective strategies that employers can use, and I'd like to draw on an example from Old Mutual Savings Clubs, and you should be quite familiar with this.
Old Mutual has a peer to peer learning initiative that focuses on community building, and it's called the Old Mutual Savings Clubs, and these clubs really encourage employees to share experience and strategies on fostering a sense of collective progress when it comes to financial well being and it's quite an interactive program which has garnered quite a bit of success.
So, you know, we can take cues from that program, you know, creating a supportive environment and Mlamuli's has spoken extensively about the environment within which employees work, you know, encouraging open discussions about financial matters to reduce that stigma we spoke about earlier, but also to promote this culture of financial well being.
I think transparency is also important from an employer's perspective. Something interesting that I read about recently was the use of gaming tools, so there are companies now in the US that are using very clever gaming tools and apps to teach employees about financial skills, you know, they can be interactive, your budgeting can become a fun exercise, and it can also improve employee engagement and wellbeing.
And then lastly, I think we all have payroll systems, but why don't our payroll systems go a step further and we can include more information around our retirement contributions and our savings and investments, et cetera, which are directly linked to online payroll systems?
Blessing Utete: Some really good strategies that you've highlighted there,thanks Fatima. Mlamuli, from your perspective, what, what, what are the strategies that employers can look at?
Mlamuli Mbambo: So something interesting happened late last year and went to a client, one of the banks, I won't say which one, and they were having a men's mental health day, right? And one of the things from the person that we were discussing this with, she was saying that typically men struggle to sit down and really just listen and hear the master class or the speaker sharing their wisdom. So what we then said was like, okay, let's maybe gamify this, so the cover of my book happens to have Mrabaraba or Mrabaraba, which is an indigenous African game. Strangely enough, the client said, wait, can they play your Mrabaraba game? And then you incorporate financial principles that come with a strategy game.
And I said, well, hold my cup. And, uh, we created something with Gallejo and when we delivered it, it was so amazing how engaged they were and so many were showing that, ah, I used to play this in school. I played this with my grandfather, my father, I personally played it with my grandfather as well and it didn't seem like it's a session to learn.
They felt they were playing a game and then we used the typical things like in chess, strategy, cognitive thinking, patience, delay gratification, and by tying the principles of gaming and the game that they had just played and experienced and competed with each other, that created the path for then the financial education to come in but even when we do share the financial education, another great strategy is to utilize storytelling.
Our nature and our brain for millennia appreciate stories, so when you incorporate storytelling, don't say that a person needs to save or a person needs to have an emergency account, share a story of what led to that product then being the solution. What I often share is that employers need to till the soil before they actually plant the tactics. I think we do a lot of, this is how you must do it, this is what you must do, but we don't really engage the why.
And if employers engage the why for their employees, I think it connects better. I think it's fertile soil that when the products come and when the strategies on the how enter, they land on fertile soil.
Blessing Utete: Yeah. Maybe if you can carry on with that train of thought around leadership and what leadership does and their role in cementing financial wellness initiatives. Cause I mean, you've just started to hint on it. I mean, your conversation with the bank about how they thought about changing, maybe just highlight leadership, the role that it plays.
Mlamuli Mbambo: So another example, before I then started my session, one of the senior executives came in and they actually shared their struggles with finances previously, right? And in them sharing their struggles, you could see the room become a lot more vulnerable. And a lot more open to having the conversation, because I think typically leaders come across as, I've got it all figured out, there's nothing wrong that I did, et cetera.
And I think that then says, okay, if I want a promotion, if I want to go up the corporate ladder, I need to have this mask of perfection in order to become a future leader but when the leader themselves can be vulnerable and share their challenges with finances, with mental health, et cetera. Then the
employees are like, Oh, so it is a safe space and you could see that people were now a lot more open.
So for me, it's leadership, be vulnerable. You're not Superman. You're not Batman. You don't have to be perfect. Share the trials that you've gone through and a lot of the employees will probably identify and relate to that. And then they are open to actually sharing their trials and tribulations, their struggles and then we're actually able to have an honest conversation about how we might actually help them.
Blessing Utete: Yeah, I've been building trust through showing vulnerability. So, so important. Fatima, you, from your perspective, various leadership roles that you play in your own organization and in the industry as well. Maybe your thoughts on what leadership can do and the role that leadership plays in these financial wellness initiatives.
Fatima Vawda: Absolutely. I mean, leadership is everything. Whether you're the CEO of a company or you're the CEO of a country, it speaks to everything and people want to work for companies that have a good corporate culture, that have got progressive policies that embraces issues like diversity, equity and inclusion that ensures that everyone has a voice and a seat at the table, etcetera.
And that all comes down to the trust in the leadership of an organization. So I love the fact that Mlamuli’s, again talking about things like storytelling because if an executive can openly discuss their financial journey and endorse financial wellness programs, et cetera. It demonstrates that it's got the support of leadership. A report from the Financial Sector Conduct Authority and the National Treasury, where they've done quite a bit of work around inclusion and financial inclusion in companies and they've also come up with one of their findings was that organizational leaders, if they actively endorse and participate in those financial wellness programs, it adds to the legitimacy and signals its importance ultimately to the employee.
So again, transparent communication from leadership about the objectives and the benefits, et cetera. Can add a lot of value, so yes, I agree leadership plays a fundamental role in ensuring and promoting financial wellness amongst employees.
Blessing Utete: Yeah, I mean, you've hit the nail on the head there, Fatima. I think the reality is that from a leadership perspective, and I think also Mlamuli also hinted on it earlier to say he's come across somewhere that's a tick box, but I think, you know, if you really want to go the extra mile and make sure it hits, it really works its way through and has the impact it needs, then leaders can't make this transactional.
It has to be really part of what they're passionate about and what they want to achieve with financial wellness. Let's take a listen to this next clip where Mamapudi Nkgadima weighs in on the financial literacy of South Africa.
SABC News YouTube Clip: Now what we've seen by looking at various research from from different organisations and confirmation is that the financial literacy is declining over the years in South Africa, sitting at 41 percent but comparing with other countries. I've just looked at two countries, uh, was one that is sitting at 51 percent which is like the icon for the African continent. But when you look at Somalia sitting at 15 percent now, that's a concern and I think what the study that was done for the financial sector conduct, but confirmed through each human sizes Research Council really confirmed that between 2011 and 2020 there has been a significant decline.
Blessing Utete: Thoughts hearing that about the, this decline in financial literacy?
Mlamuli Mbambo: For me, I think the main part of this decline is language. So I did Bcom economics and finance, right? I did work in one of the big banks and typically this was my language in terms of finance and that kind of thing and initially when I started doing the workshops and the talks that I do, I came at it from a, you know, a banker's ROI return.
And what I found is that it just kept on going over people's heads and back. Back, back in my youth, I used to have a song book and a poetry book and I used to do drama and theatre. I was like Mandoza, Michael Jackson in different performances and I found the more I added edutainment and theatrical and storytelling elements, the more it connected with people, the more I used everyday metaphors, the more it connected.
So I think a lot of it vests in the language. One of the critiques I think that we should harbour as financial wellness practitioners is there seems to be a thing of trying to sound intelligent more than communicating, whereas the
goal is actually to be understood. And then the second part of it is the why, why should I care to attend financial wellness, right?
Is it about fixing the employer's bottom line? And most people think they see it as that more than this would actually impact my life, fix my real financial challenges.
Blessing Utete: Thanks, Mlamuli. Fatima, your reflections on that clip?
Fatima Vawda: Yeah. You know, what is very, very interesting in South Africa is that 81 percent of South African adults hold bank accounts. So we have bank accounts and we understand the importance of the need of having bank accounts yet we continuously face these challenges of financial education and I think it all comes down to the type and the level of engagement that we have with people as financial services providers and participants in the financial sector.
So I do believe that engagement does matter. And if we can achieve that, and hopefully, you know, what the advancements in technology with artificial intelligence, we can use that more efficiently to improve our levels of engagement.
Blessing Utete: Yeah. Thanks Fatima. And I suppose, you know, now you've also already started talking about the future of workplace financial wellbeing. I want to go back to Mlamuli and you've started hinting on some of these things, you know, gamification, personalization. I mean, just your thoughts on what the future of, of workplace financial wellbeing programs looks like.
Mlamuli Mbambo: Okay, so I think the main thing I see in the future is AI powered financial coaching entering the space because perhaps it is cumbersome and perhaps costly for employers to then say there will be financial coaches and advisors coming here all the time.
But AI can facilitate where it takes down the details off you personally and, you know, it looks at different metrics and then it advises in terms of [00:27:00] maybe save here, you've spent this, you know, there's another app where if you spent an X amount on a category that you said, maybe you said, I'm going to spend maximum 5000, when it's getting close to 5, 000, it's amber when it goes post 5,000 then it's red.
So those kinds of things I think would assist with the how and the implementation part of it and the personalization that it's speaking directly to the person's financial situation. So I think on the psychological side there will always be room for financial advisors, for financial coaches.
It's just about them understanding that we're moving into a world where the actual doing and the taking up of the products, et cetera, that can be outsourced online and they roll now becomes more of the human to human interaction.
Blessing Utete: Fatima, Mlamuli started to hint on the psychology of savings, and I mean, you know, just your thoughts on the psychology behind savings behaviours just being so complex, what do you believe are the key psychological factors preventing employees from engaging in financial well being programs?
Fatima Vawda: We touched on it earlier where I mentioned that sometimes employees within forums and roundtable discussions, et cetera, feel embarrassed to talk about their financial situation, or in some instances, there's also that lack of trust, confidence. They feel unprepared to stand up and talk about things that perhaps are too complex and so people either procrastinate or people avoid it.
And we see that all the time in the retirement fund industry and it's one of the reasons why we've had to put in place default portfolios while some members can have a choice in terms of where and how they want their monies to be invested and they can make informed decisions. What we often find is majority of employees tend to go for the default portfolios because of this fear, this lack of confidence, you know, we see that so much on an individual financial planning basis as well, that suddenly people find themselves close to retirement and when they started working, they thought they'll deal with this next month. They'll deal with this next year, they'll deal with it. And it just goes on and on and on.
And the next thing you are 55, 60 and you are close to retirement and you realize that you haven't saved enough because you've avoided it and procrastinated. So psychological barriers are very, very important.
Blessing Utete: You started to go to this generational differences
Mlamuli, if you can just talk about these generational differences and, and how they shape the financial wellbeing and thinking that the different generations have.
Mlamuli Mbambo: So late last year, I did a session with students that are in a scholarship program, and one of the things the client asked me to really, really address was online gambling and forex. There is such an overconfidence that I will be this amazing forex trader and double my money every month, so there really is a sense of belief in self that is amazing, I guess, to my generation that they have. The other thing to consider with GenZ is they really value flexibility and I think what that says to the employer is that you need to make sure that they see the purpose. In the work that they are doing right.
And in terms of financial wellness, part of knowing the purpose of the work they doing is knowing where they add value and being able to measure that value. They need to feel like they are entrepreneurs in that department more than they need to just maybe just coming in as a worker, so the more you can make them identify with the mission, the vision, et cetera, et cetera, I think the more you will get from that generation.
Blessing Utete: Mlamuli you're an author and this is your passion. Do you want to tell us about the book that you've written around these topics?
Mlamuli Mbambo: The book is a national bestseller. It's called Winning the Money Game, a guide to financial wellbeing and it tells the story of Mkhulu and Gogo Mbata. And what I always say is that the book gives you wealthy grandparents, they are having a conversation with their grandson, Mfundo, who's just completed his studies and in that conversation, Mkhulu goes back in time.
And shares how he actually moved from living paycheck to paycheck as a teacher to then becoming a wealthy person and in sharing his story and advising Mfundo as the reader, you then actually start, you know, thinking about your financial circumstances and how much you also journey towards financial wellbeing.
And yeah, the testimonials have, have been amazing and what I love most about it is, because it's based on principles and it's, it's just a nice story, I'm finding that people are sharing it within the family. And you, you have a family that used to find financial topics, you know, kind of taboo. And it was only about shouting when, you know, you ask mom or dad for money, to now, Oh, what would Mkhulu Mbata do?
Or what would Mlamini do? Or what would Gogo Mbata do? So I'm finding those kinds of testimonials and that's truly, truly amazing. The book is available at exclusive books or bargain books soon to be at take a lot as well. And most welcome to contact me on LinkedIn. Thank you so much.
Blessing Utete: Thank you for that. I mean, it's really putting your money where your mouth is when you talk about storytelling and financial issues and making them more relevant. So, so that's really great and I think you're hopefully people who pick that book up. We're going to go to our cornerstone question, which we ask guests each week. Now, I'll start with you. What do you think we haven't said about this topic today?
Mlamuli Mbambo: So I think what we haven't spoken about is side hustles or employees having additional income streams. There is a restraint on trade agreements that can still be signed with some employers and the more I've had this conversation, the more I'm seeing that employers are seeing that, you know, one salary for most South Africans in the space of, you know, our economic situation and inflation, one salary is no longer enough.
And as long as they respect their job, obviously, and they do the side hustle, a lot of departments and employers are getting comfortable with that. Obviously look at conflicts of interest, et cetera, et cetera. It also does a lot for problem solving because of the problems that they deal with in their side hustles. they bring that thinking to the department or to their job, so you're getting the benefits of someone that is. Essentially going on a journey of self improvement, learning certain things outside of their job, that they will then bring and achieve in this space.
Blessing Utete: Now, certainly a food for thought in terms of helping your employees become more financially resilient. I've had another conversation where my guest was talking about a third age and rewirement. And I think what you're saying is we are going to go into a future of work where there's parallel employment streams and people just evolve into the next stage.
Fatima Vawda: Yeah, I think the biggest issue that we haven't really tackled today and that is currently a cancer in South Africa is sports betting.
And the issue around how sports betting is impacting the lives of ordinary South Africans. We are aware that we are losing a lot of long term savers. to sports betting.
Blessing Utete: Some very sobering thoughts there, Fatima. Thank you very much for coming through, Mlamuli. It's been really great having you in this session.
Mlamuli Mbambo: Thank you, Blessing. I enjoyed the conversation, thank you, Fatima. I actually also learned a couple of things, especially with some of the studies done. I'll go and research further on that. So thank you so much for this platform.
Blessing Utete: Thank you very much, Fatima.
Fatima Vawda: It's a pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Blessing Utete: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like and subscribe for more. You can also subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop. We'd love to hear more about your experience with financial well being at work. If you have any insights or thoughts, feel free to share them with us in the comments.Thanks for listening, we look forward to the next time.
Three ways to help your employees stay financially fit. Money matters can be distracting at the best of times. Never mind when things go truly wrong, as an employer, you can support your people so that they're in the best possible position for their future. Here's how.
Firstly, your business can share educational content and provide free financial workshops to staff.
Secondly, collaborate with professional partners who can give financial advice when your employees need it for the big life decisions. Finally, create a space where candid conversations can happen. and encourage peer to peer or community opportunities.
If you're looking for all of these solutions in one, Old Mutual has developed an interactive and accessible financial wellbeing program specifically designed for employees. There's a free e-learning platform with helpful workshops and modules, a groundbreaking debt management solution, RightTrack, a call center to give support in times of big financial decisions, and one on one advice by accredited Old Mutual financial advisors. At Old Mutual Corporate, we offer tools and resources to help people on this journey. Reach out to us to learn more.