Three launches financial wellness strategy

Three, a leader in communications, has launched a new financial wellness program for their people, in conjunction with nudge.

The company which employs almost 4,600 people across its offices in Maidenhead, Glasgow, and Reading and its 337 retail stores, already had an award-winning approach to wellness but added a new financial wellness element to enhance its strategy.

Jenny Davidson, Head of People Propositions at Three commented: “We believe Wellness is about so much more than eating an apple and going for a run. It’s about supporting our people’s whole selves. Creating the opportunities and space for them to look after their physical, emotional, financial, and mental wellbeing and supporting them to do this. As the average age of our people is 32 and over 54% are millennials or younger, they want rewards that are mobile first, and offer quick ’in the moment’ communication. The nudge approach fits this model perfectly as it offers bite-sized, personalized financial education via any device and allows our people to decide whether they receive their ‘nudges’ via WhatsApp, SMS, or email.”

Three engaged directly their people to help them shape and develop their approach through intensive feedback via internal working groups and online surveys. One of the key messages they were getting was that their people needed more support to help improve their personal finances. They then conducted focus groups asking employees what worried them most about their financial situation. The three key themes that emerged were around getting on the housing ladder, saving, and inheritance.

Jenny Davidson continues: “While I think we could have predicted that our people would want to know how they could get on the housing ladder or save more, we were really surprised that there was such an interest in what should happen if their partner dies or becomes ill. For me, it really underlines the value of providing a broad financial education to learn what your people are interested in before jumping in and providing new employee benefits that aren’t required."

The new financial wellness program was launched via roadshows, to engage employee forum champions and store managers, as well as an intranet campaign.

The financial wellness service provided by nudge will help employees manage their money better in two ways:

• A personalized platform that provides financial education posts and ‘dreams and goals’ action plans.
• Personalized ‘nudges’ providing tips, tricks, guidance, and actions in line with lifestyle, legislative, or company events which employees can choose to receive via email, SMS, or WhatsApp.