Human Resources Issues for Senior Management
Issue link: https://digital.hrreporter.com/i/747024
06/CANADIAN HR STRATEGY W orkplace wellness programs around physical and mental health are commonplace these days. But, more recently, nancial wellness has gained in popularity as the impact of employee anxiety around nances is better understood. So, what should employers be doing? How much is too much or too little? And how can employee behav- iour change? Canadian HR Reporter recently hosted a round- table in Toronto, sponsored by Sun Life Financial, that delved into these questions and more. MAKING AN IMPACT Money is the number one cause of stress for the majority of people, according to Frank Wiginton, Toronto-based nan- cial wellness expert. "That stress is impacting their relationships with their families, their co-workers, their eating habits, their exercise — every- thing. It's impacting all these different areas," he says. "If we're not dealing with it, then we're not going to ultimate- ly have an impact on the overall stress in our organizations." Financial wellness is a natu- ral next step in the evolution of wellness in the workplace, says Lianne Buchanan, director of total rewards, HR, at Economi- cal in Toronto. "Because of the nancial wellness piece being so tied to emotional stress and how you behave and behaviours in the workplace, this is a natural evo- lution of holistic well-being in the workplace. And nancial literacy, nancial well-being, is a really important part of that." And nancial wellness programs have been found to have a positive impact on areas such as employee engagement, pro- ductivity and retention. "To the extent that we can take nancial wellness and mar- ry it with discussions around total wellness to get that holistic wellness approach in the workplace is to the bene t of that employee experience, and anything that we can do to height- en that employee experience is a bene t to the employer," says Buchanan. MEET THE PANELLISTS (FROM LEFT) FRANK WIGINTON, FINANCIAL WELLNESS EXPERT LIANNE BUCHANAN, ECONOMICAL NAREN DANIELS, SUN LIFE FINANCIAL HEATHER BRIANT, CINEPLEX ENTERTAINMENT VATCHE RUBENYAN, ROGERS COMMUNICATION Financial Wellness looking to help employees cope, employers are adopting programs to boost employee health, productivity, engagement By Sarah Dobson Finding PHOTOGRAPHY BY SANDRA STRANGEMORE