From Boomers to Gen Z: Can one financial wellbeing strategy work for everyone?

Speakers:

Ugne Sapezinskaite - Strategic Account Director at Stream 

Kathryn Pritchard - Chief People Officer at Nuffield Health 

Catherine Gourlay - People Director at Travelodge

Jane Earnshaw - Senior Director of Reward, Organisation Development and Policy at Asda

Five key takeaways:

1. Generational labels are a shortcut, not a strategy. 

All three panellists pushed back on the idea that age or generation is a reliable predictor of financial need. Within any generation, especially one as broad as Gen Z (aged 16-29) individual circumstances vary so dramatically that a targeted approach can easily miss the point entirely.

2. Listening comes first, always. 

The starting point for each organisation's financial wellbeing strategy was direct colleague feedback, through union forums, colleague circles, benefit platform engagement data, and informal conversations in stores and hotels. Assumptions made in boardrooms by higher earners routinely fail the lower-paid majority.

3. Word of mouth is the most powerful communication channel. 

Digital screens, posters, emails, and apps all play a role, but real adoption traction came when colleagues started talking to each other. Getting a critical mass of engaged users, that first 30-50%, unlocks organic advocacy that no comms campaign can replicate.

4. Breadth of product range matters more than targeting. 

Because nobody knows when they will need a specific financial tool, not even the individual themselves, the most valuable strategy is one that covers the widest range of needs and keeps all options accessible, not one optimised for a specific demographic.

5. The hidden impact is often the most meaningful. 

Beyond engagement stats, the panellists shared stories that illustrated how financial tools create impact in ways that never appear in a dashboard: a colleague quietly building a financial safety net she needed to leave a difficult relationship; workers replacing a hardship fund colleagues were reluctant to use with self-managed access to Pay; younger colleagues discovering a genuine passion for pension investing.

Summary

Setting the scene

Ugne opened by framing the structural reality: for the first time in history, five generations are simultaneously in the workforce. Gen Z already make up more than 20% of the UK workforce [1], and Millennials and Gen Z together now account for more than half of all workers [2]. Each generation has faced distinct financial pressures -- from the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis and the pandemic's knock-on effects (energy prices, food inflation, mortgage rate rises) to stark differences in housing access, pension provision, and financial literacy. Concerns about money are widespread: 44% of UK Gen Zs cite cost of living as their top concern [3], 1 in 10 UK adults have no cash savings at all [4], and 50% of households have less than £300 saved [5].

The central question: does that generational context ever justify building a differentiated financial wellbeing strategy, or does it lead organisations down the wrong path?

How each employer designs its financial wellbeing strategy

All three panellists described a broadly similar approach: start with listening, then build around colleague needs rather than assumptions. Catherine noted the historical problem of benefits being designed in boardrooms by high earners on behalf of predominantly basic-rate taxpayers. Jane described using both union forums and colleague circles in every store to surface what colleagues actually need. Kathryn added that while listening is essential, it is not an abdication of responsibility, senior leadership has a duty to actively champion financial wellbeing, not simply wait for colleagues to ask.

Do generational differences show up in practice?

Nuffield Health found no meaningful generational patterns in either product usage or satisfaction across their gym and hospital businesses. Stream adoption was broadly consistent across age groups.

Asda found that younger colleagues were over-indexing on savings uptake relative to their proportion of the workforce, though at lower average values. Jane noted this as an opportunity to build habits early. Travelodge similarly saw strong savings adoption across age groups, including 56% [10] of Gen Z colleagues actively saving.

Catherine offered a revealing anecdote: a young team member assumed to have no interest in pensions turned out to be deeply engaged with investment strategy -- and actively chose employers based on pension contribution quality. The lesson: proximity to a stereotype is not evidence of fitting it.

Communication and reaching a dispersed workforce

Asda's challenge is acute: 120,000 colleagues on the shop floor, most without regular access to a laptop. Their approach uses every available channel simultaneously -- benefits platform feeds, email, printed posters, table talkers in rest areas, and digital screens on-site, without assuming any single channel works for any specific group.

Catherine highlighted an ambition to bring customer-style personalisation to colleague communications, the same behavioural targeting used to guide customers through a website could, in theory, serve relevant benefits information to colleagues at the right moment (e.g. sending physio options when someone goes off sick with back pain). That personalisation is a future goal, not current reality.

All three agreed that word of mouth is the most reliable driver of adoption once a threshold of engaged users is reached.

Initiatives that have genuinely moved the needle

• Asda: The Stream app has been the standout benefit, with approximately 47,000-48,000 downloads [8].Colleagues use it to check worked hours (often preferring it to the internal HR system), access Pay, and save. The Workplace Savings product has seen over 23,000 colleagues saving a combined total of approximately £6.3m [7]. Stream's own data shows that around a third of new savers are building savings habits for the very first time [6].
• Travelodge: Workplace Savings exceeded all expectations on adoption and is cross-generational in use. The average saving pot is approaching £200, with an average saving goal of approximately £1,600 [9]. 
• Nuffield Health: Approximately 25% of their workforce is using Stream in year one [11]. A key qualitative shift has been colleagues moving away from the hardship fund -- previously a source of shame -- towards self-managed access to Pay, which colleagues report as empowering and anxiety-reducing.

Can one strategy work for everyone?

Yes - all three panellists agreed, and each gave a version of the same answer:

• Kathryn Pritchard: "Yes -- we don't have the bandwidth to differentiate, and we have no evidence our people want a differentiated strategy."
• Jane Earnshaw: "Yes -- simplicity, accessibility, and inclusivity. Don't make assumptions and don't try to be too clever."
• Catherine Gourlay: "Yes -- the goal is financial resilience for everyone. The approach is making the broadest range of products available within one strategic framework."

Recommended next steps

• Audit who is making your benefits decisions. 
• Stop designing by demographic, start designing by life event. 
• Prioritise breadth over niche. 
• Find your word-of-mouth catalyst.
• Treat partnership selection as a strategic decision. 
• Set the expectation at board level. 
• Look at the data underneath your data. 

Bottom line

The question the session posed; can one financial wellbeing strategy work for everyone? was answered plainly and unanimously: yes. 

Not because everyone has the same needs, but because a strategy built on broad access, genuine choice, and colleague-led design naturally accommodates those differences without requiring employers to second-guess them. 

The evidence from Asda, Travelodge, and Nuffield Health shows that when you give people the tools and get out of the way, they use what they need, when they need it. Generational thinking is a useful lens for newspaper headlines. It is a much less useful lens for building a financial wellbeing programme that actually works.

Footnotes

1. People Management / CIPD, 2024 https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/article/1823805/why-shouldnt-generalise-generation-z
2. Work Foundation at Lancaster University, August 2024 https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/media/lancaster-university/content-assets/documents/lums/work-foundation/WFWorkingTogether-Maximisingtheopportunitiesofamultigenerationalworkforce.pdf
3. Deloitte UK Gen Z and Millennial Survey 2026 https://www.deloitte.com/uk/en/about/press-room/gen-z-and-millennial-survey-2026.html
4. FCA Financial Lives Survey 2024 (published May 2025) https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/more-people-have-bank-accounts-one-ten-have-no-cash-savings
5. Stream State of Financial Wellbeing Index (internal). Cited publicly via MHR/Stream partnership press release.https://www.onrec.com/news/partnerships/mhr-partners-with-wagestream-to-bring-financial-wellbeing-to-uk-employees 
6. NEST Insight / Stream research.https://www.nestinsight.org.uk/nest-insight-and-wagestream-announce-new-workplace-savings-research-trial 
7. Asda: Jane Earnshaw, live on stage, 20th May 2026. 
8. Asda: Jane Earnshaw, live on stage, 20th May 2026. 
9. Travelodge: Catherine Gourlay, live on stage, 20th May 2026. 
10. Travelodge: Catherine Gourlay, live on stage, 20th May 2026. 
11. Nuffield Health: Kathryn Pritchard, live on stage, 20th May 2026.

Legal and regulatory information

The information on this page is provided for general information purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. It is intended for HR and People professionals.

Workplace Savings are provided through Stream Financial Services Ltd, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 915914). Registered in England and Wales. Company registration number: 12227891. Registered address: 7-9 Rathbone Street, London, W1T 1LY.

Workplace Savings are held in a safeguarded account with our partner bank, Investec. 

Pay is a non-regulated feature and does not carry the same regulatory protections as the regulated products listed above.