Bristol
Financial Resilience
Action Group

Clare: Lisa, you’re People Director at We The Curious, one of our neighbours along the harbourside - what motivated you to get involved in the Bristol Financial Resilience Action Group?

Lisa: So what the great thing is about the group is that 1) it's local, like you said you're next door to us 2) we get to link up with lots of other organisations that are part of this and 3) we get free resources to help our team be more financially resilient. As a charity we don’t have access to huge budgets and massive training days or huge new benefits that cost us lots of money but what we do have access to through this is the free financial resilience training which has been absolutely transformative for our people.

Clare: And you've mentioned the free monthly financial education - what's the feedback been like from staff?

Lisa: So good, you've done lots of things on different topics, you got things on there about saving for a house deposit, which suits the demographic of our people, you got saving for children, you've got pensions, you've got investing, lots of stuff that you think actually where am I going to learn about that, you don’t learn about it at school, sometimes our parents don't really know about it, we don’t know what people's home situations are so where are they going to get the opportunity to learn this stuff? We make time during the working day for people to go on these webinars together and then afterwards I can sense everyone in the office talking about money in the office which is amazing and not always positively. You don’t always have to come from this and think now I have loads of money because I went on that webinar, no, actually what I found, people are more comfortable talking about things they don’t have - so I don’t feel like I have a load of money in my pension, I don’t feel like I put enough money away every month and actually I'm a bit skint and people feel more confident having that conversation which I just absolutely love.

Clare: You've mentioned the holistic financial education, which is based on our 5 to thrive framework, those 5 foundations on the route to financial resilience. One of the key things that you've noticed in change of culture is that staff are talking more about money. What would you say to a company considering signing up to this initiative?

Lisa: I would say absolutely do it. Do what you can to get this stuff in front of your people, talk about it, communicate it, make a commitment with it. The biggest thing with this is we care about you and we care about your financial future. Regardless of what benefits you can put in place or financial incentives that you can put forward - giving people education to make decisions for themselves is the key thing here - so take part in it, see how you get on and feedback to HL if it doesn’t work for you, they can always alter stuff, do bespoke things for your people and I really look forward to hearing about what other people get out of this and then I can learn more as well!

Clare: That's one of the key things as well, isn't it, that coalition of Bristol employers and building that employer network as well as providing education.

Lisa: Massively, we all hold each other to account, so when we come together, I hear people say that we're now doing this with our pension, we're now putting this benefit forward, I go back and I feel I need a kick up my rear end to do that for our people. And so I've really valued that.

Clare: So in summary, do it.

Lisa: Do it please.

Clare: So James, why did the Great Western Credit Union decide to join the Bristol Financial Resilience Action Scheme?

James: Well, I think for us, there was a real synergy between the work we do to build financial wellbeing across the city of Bristol and beyond. And the initiatives that Hargreaves Lansdown have brought forward in the sense of the Financial Resilience Action Group and for us it was really a no brainer to get involved in it, both to enhance what we do for people and communities around the city, but also most importantly for our own team and to just see what extra we could be doing to do to develop our offer for our own people around financial wellbeing.

Clare: And the Bristol Financial Resilience Action Group framework that we’ve shared – you’ve driven some changes off the back of that. How has that been received by staff?

James: That’s been received really well. Some of the things that we’ve done have been relatively low cost and relatively easy, but still had a big impact. So, things like making available a small amount of interest free credit to folks so that they can manage unexpected expenses at the end of the month and helping people manage better with their day-to-day money but also for us not forgetting that financial wellbeing is a long-term thing as well. And so being able to really build enhancements in terms of pension contributions and to help people to plan for the long term as well as has been a real win for us and the team.

Clare: I think that the 5 to thrive framework really showcases the fact that financial resilience is holistic and that it’s multiple components that all piece together to give you that security and peace of mind. What about, just generally, what would you say to any company that’s thinking about joining the scheme for year 2?

James: Yeah I think it's absolutely something that companies around the area should do. I think if you want to find something that will really help you make a difference in terms of financial wellbeing for your team, your organisation and then through that team and your organisation and onwards through the rest of the city, this is really one of the best things that you could do. You get some free stuff, you get to meet loads of other committed employers who are working together to improve financial resilience for their people as well and it's really all round just a really positive initiative people should take part in.

Clare: And then finally, what’s your biggest takeaway from the last 12 months?

James: I think for me the biggest takeaway really has been the knowledge sharing, so being able to work with employers of all different sizes, to learn from others, to be able to share with others things that we have done as well. That network of people who are committed to this area and are taking action on it has been absolutely invaluable.

Clare: Fantastic, thank you.

Clare: So Brian, why did Brunel Care decide to join the Bristol Financial Resilience Action Group?

Brian: Because it aligned totally with our direction of travel. Brunel Care, was, since 2020, trying to improve the employment package with pay and reward for our employees because we were so far below competitor rates in NHS and in other sectors, and we had already taken quite a few strides but when we found out about BFRAG it just absolutely was consistent with the synergy and the new ideas. What we used was the 5 pillars, we used that as a gap analysis against what we were already doing and identified the things that we weren’t that we could include in our actions.

Clare: You mentioned the recommendation based on our 5 to thrive framework there. How have the changes you’ve implemented been felt by staff?

Brian: Well, the hard proof is the fact that our retention has gone from 70% to 86% - we’re not losing people. Our vacancy rate is under 3%. The sector average is 9.9% so from a people are staying with us perspective, that’s the proof. But in terms of the feedback, we’ve had fantastic feedback from lots of different things that we’ve done, we consult regularly with teams, and I ask ideas and I also get feedback from them. And in reality we’ve just got a much more settled set of colleagues because we’ve not got so many vacancies, we’ve not got new starters. We’re not using a lot of agencies. So, everything has added up to a really good situation that we're in but there’s a long way still to go.

Clare: And you’re a big believer that investing in staff through benefits, through your reward strategy, it leads to good business?

Brian: Yes is the answer, but it wasn’t me that had to be convinced. It was our trustees, we are a charity. Our budgets, we put together, but it's our trustees who have to sign them off. We had to convince our trustees that we were not putting the business at risk by saying we want to pay a lot more money in these benefits, that we want to introduce these new benefits, that we want to increase pensions etc. And we had to demonstrate to them that it’s not a cost, it’s an investment. And you’ll see the return in terms of business efficiency and retaining more money so that the bottom line improves massively. They trusted us to do that, they saw the business case and accepted it and we’re now at a stage where they are seeing that our financial performance has far exceeded everyone’s expectations in retaining the money that is coming through the tills.

Clare: Fantastic. And what would you say to a company that is considering joining the scheme for year 2?

Brian: Do it. Absolutely do it. It’s the right thing to do and why would you not want to ensure that your team feel valued and appreciated and rewarded fairly for the work that they’re doing but there will be distinct business improvements if you do, because if you’ve got highly motivated people that feel valued and they’re not leaving it just improves business efficiency; productivity goes up and if people are not convinced they can give me a call, they can come, I’ll show them the numbers.

Clare: I’ll hold you to that.