sustainable employability; an increasingly important issue for many organizations. By now, many employers are also aware that sustainable employability also has to do with vitality.

Especially in this period, many employers are busy keeping staff sustainably employable and vital: drawing up a policy for the elderly, providing a safe and vital working environment, attention to learning and personal development and so on. More and more employers are also giving attention to psychological complaints of employees. Thinking about a healthy work-life balance and offering support for complaints of stress and burnout have become more normal since "sustainable employability" and "vitality" have become hot issues. An employee is going through a divorce? We discuss it, listen and ask questions. Caring for parents? A move? Ditto. Because we all understand that all these events/situations affect the vitality of the employee and therefore also the employability. This makes 'sustainable employability' and 'vitality' no longer container terms; and that's a good thing!

But aren't we forgetting something?

Yet one topic often goes unmentioned; a topic that eminently affects staff vitality and employability. After all, what does it do to an employee if he or she has to make ends meet every month in order to buy groceries? Or worse, if there is the threat of someone having to leave their home? Secretly, we all know this answer, because fundamentally, this is well known: an employee with money problems is stressed and often out of his or her mind. It has even been proven that an employee with money problems shows 20% less work productivity and an average of 7 more days of absenteeism per year. Yet people still regard this as a private (problem).

Attention to money problems!

More and more schools are making the topic of handling money a topic of discussion within the curriculum. This teaches children from an early age how best to handle money. Children learn through play what budgeting is and that we cannot always buy everything we want. Children are made aware that they are in control of their own spending and that they make their own choices. This determines their behavior in the future.

That more and more schools are paying attention to this is a great and valuable initiative. But why does this subject suddenly become a taboo as soon as children leave school and go to work? Why is this subject immediately labeled "private"? Do we realize sufficiently what influence our financial situation has on our vitality and therefore on the work we do?

Let's just discuss it

So employee financial health is indeed an important topic for employers to address. It starts with awareness, just like in school programs: let's just make this a topic of conversation. And if it turns out that an employee could use some help with this, the employer should deploy a budget coach! Let's not consider this subject a 'taboo' anymore, but let's make it a subject for discussion, so that we can support each other in this. Just as we use the expertise of a psychologist for complaints of stress and overwork. Or deploy a vitality coach for an employee who wants to live healthier. Or a career coach for an employee who wants to get more out of his or her career! If we realize that an employee can also receive a helping hand financially in order to become financially self-reliant, then we are really doing the right thing!

Learn more about budget coaching?

Curious about what De Arbodienst s budget coaches can do for you and your employee? Contact us to discuss the possibilities.