CYBG, owners of Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks, has launched a dedicated Employee Financial Well-being proposition, aimed at improving access to financial education and guidance for employees of their business customers.
Research suggests that one in four* UK employees have financial concerns that impact their productivity in work, and over half (58%)** would benefit from employer-facilitated support. With this in mind, CYBG has created a bespoke service aimed at helping people make more informed choices when it comes to managing their money. The Bank has 220,000 SME customers and this service is aimed at customers with larger workforces.
The proposition is being spearheaded by the head of customer banking in each of the core cities - Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Birmingham and London - who will be responsible for delivering the initiative to customers. The Financial Well-being support teams will include banking and mortgage advisers, as well as staff from the Private Bank team, who will visit customers at their premises and share their expertise and knowledge with employees.
Stephen Hepburn, head of customer banking in Aberdeen, said: “We are committed to supporting our SME customers grow and last year we launched our lending commitment, making £6bn available over three years to fuel growth. But we wanted to go one stage further so we have created our Employee Financial Well-being proposition, which supports the employees who are crucial to the success of any business. This is an opportunity for us to enhance the service we offer to our customers – we are there for all their critical moments in a business lifecycle, so we feel we should be there for important events in their employees lives too.
“We are keen that this is a tailored service for our customers, so we are working with them and their people to ensure we are meeting their individual needs.”
The teams will present to employees, with key focuses around knowing your finances, understanding your budget and providing tips on how to manage money to provide greater financial confidence. This can then be supplemented by regular onsite sessions and meetings with individual employees if required as well as the option of opening accounts on the place of business. There is also a dedicated page on the Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks business website to support the initiative.
Stephen added: “Employee well-being is extremely important in the workplace and has a number of benefits for both the business and colleagues. The main goal is to have employees feeling more confident about their finances, which in turn can help their productivity at work. We look forward to working with businesses across the UK as we develop this proposition.”
