Image Source: Pexels
Human resources is a field dedicated to providing businesses with the tools they need to manage a healthy and happy workforce. Workers face all kinds of challenges that can impact safety and productivity on the job. By being there to help employees navigate the problems they’ll encounter as they work, HR teams have the invaluable ability to improve workers’ potential to succeed and innovate.
But some issues get complicated. How can HR managers be expected to handle employees with financial problems, for instance? It isn’t good business to just bail employees out of any financial trouble they get themselves into, but these problems can have a big impact on productivity.
Fitting financial assistance into HR can be tricky. However, with these strategies, HR managers can help employees with money problems without getting into troublesome territory.
1. Maintain an Open-Door Policy
One of the best methods for helping workers resolve their personal and business problems is to maintain an active open-door policy. This means your HR team invites employees to come to them for any concerns that might affect the workplace.
What an open-door policy doesn’t mean is that you have to keep your schedule clear and literally keep your door open at all times. Instead, an open-door policy can be as simple as ensuring coworkers feel comfortable sending you an e-mail or leaving you a message when they need to set up a meeting. You should be available to actively and compassionately listen to any concerns.
For instance, single parents attempting to make essential investments for the future like buying a home need all the help they can get. HR representatives may not be able to offer any financial assistance, but they can definitely be a listening ear and a bridge to helpful resources. An open-door policy ensures you won’t miss these opportunities to improve employee outcomes.
2. Set Clear Standards for Raises
Another way HR managers can help employees with financial issues is by providing an environment of clarity and transparency when it comes to raises and promotions. One of the worst situations is feeling like your job doesn’t recognize your experience, loyalty, or contributions. Going a long time without a raise without knowing why only makes the problem worse.
To avoid these problems, HR teams must work with management to create a clear rubric for raise and promotion eligibility. By doing so, employees can obtain a resource they can turn to for balancing their own goals and lifestyles with their professional careers. By establishing these standards, employees know exactly what they need to accomplish before they can qualify for a raise.
With a transparent raise system, you’ll not only be able to help employees with financial issues but also support greater productivity in the workplace.
3. Assemble Lists of Helpful Resources
Everyone needs help at different times. The number of problematic and unpreventable circumstances that might happen to any one of us demands that we have tools and safety nets to make the most of a bad situation. For 59% of workers, financial stress provides a distraction that impacts work performance, making safety nets in the workplace especially useful.
With this in mind, HR teams must build inventories of financial resources that workers might be able to utilize should a problem arise. These resources might range from state and federal programs to loan products from local financial institutions. Helping workers is a greater opportunity to build partnerships, so explore both local and online communities for helpful tools.
Develop a list of resources for every scenario that might trouble workers, and be ready to distribute these resources to your colleagues.
4. Connect Workers with Financial Advisors
In the course of accumulating helpful financial resources, you’ll likely come across the names of financial advisors. Maybe you even have one on staff already. Regardless, these professionals can make all the difference in helping employees resolve their financial issues.
Accountants and other specialists provide unique insights when it comes to investment opportunities and resources anyone might need to cultivate a healthier financial well-being. By connecting your employees with these experts, you set them up for greater success in managing their own assets.
These days, you can even add to the convenience of working with a financial advisor by supporting virtual accounting work. This way, you can staff an accountant from anywhere while providing employees with the opportunity to make convenient remote appointments. In today’s remote world, this is necessary if you hope to make these resources open to workers.
5. Develop Flexible Pay Models
Last but not least, HR teams can financially help employees by exploring new pay models. This means disrupting the status quo with systems and policies that enable a greater frequency of pay or open up the option of pay advances.
These days, this isn’t all that hard to achieve, either. With modern software, HR departments can set up time tracking to coordinate with employee mobile devices, enabling them to seamlessly input hours or record their presence on the job. From here, there is plenty of automation potential for creating more convenient pay systems. This might mean that you pay employees every day they work or allow them to set up their own pay schedules.
By democratizing payment options in this way, you’ll help your workers cultivate their own solutions to the financial difficulties we all face, improving their ability to stay focused at work.
These are just a few of the many strategies you might apply as an HR manager looking to help employees with financial issues. These struggles will affect just about everyone at some point, so being prepared with resources now will streamline your ability to assist your staff. Follow the provided strategies for a financially healthier and more productive workforce.