Tickets now available for UK's leading Financial Wellbeing conference on 20th May 2026
32 mins
Nov 7, 2025
The Financial Wellbeing Forum is a growing community of hundreds of employers, collectively supporting millions of colleagues with their financial wellbeing — the most urgent, and most under-addressed of workplace issues.
When I meet FWF members, I find a common theme: they're learning. Financial wellbeing is universal, but it can feel complex and counterintuitive. From leader-colleague empathy gaps to the differences in how salaried vs. shift colleagues manage money, there's so much we can all learn.
The State of Financial Wellbeing is critical in that learning effort. Launched by researchers at Stream four years ago, it's now one of the UK's most comprehensive research programmes on the financial wellbeing of the workforce — and I'm proud to share its latest findings, which focus on retail.
In this report we benefit from data spanning multiple years, the lived experiences of thousands of workers, and the lessons and strategies used by many of the country's leading retailers — all to support that collective journey of learning how we can improve colleagues' quality of life.
I’d like to thank the leading experts on retail and financial wellbeing, who feature in this report, and hope you’ll find their ideas and lived experiences helpful as you shape your own strategies.
Therese Procter, Chair, FWF
As retail is the largest private-sector employer, a healthy and happy workforce is fundamental, not only for the future of our industry, but also for the country's communities, its high streets, and its GDP.
Yet we know that with a large workforce, whose wages are skewed to the lower end of the scale, the rising cost of living has been more acutely felt within our sector, and this has been contributing to declining wellbeing across the industry.
The Retail Trust works with more than 200 retailers to improve the mental health of their colleagues and I'm inspired by the measures they are putting in place to alleviate the financial pressures many of their people are feeling.
While many are increasing wages, there is a limit to what can be done given the tight margins of the industry and the rate at which inflation has been rising. So employers are also stepping up by helping with discretionary funds and free meals, providing flexibility on their pay cycles, and giving people financial education and money management advice that helps them better support themselves.
This new State of Financial Wellbeing research shows there is now even more that retailers can now do. It reinforces our belief that financial wellbeing should now be seen as a standard workplace benefit — and proves that employers who can put in place the right personalised support, to also help with savings and credit health, will have the competitive edge when it comes to retaining and attracting the best staff.
We're proud to have worked with FWF and the financial wellbeing experts at Stream on this important report. Its findings are important for everyone working in retail and I hope that it can inspire and encourage more businesses to take the lead when it comes to protecting the financial wellbeing of their people.
Chris Brook-Carter, CEO, Retail Trust
A pandemic; an inflation crisis; conflict-driven supply chain shortages; generational-scale digital change. A tough time for the sector continued in 2024, with some employers describing the retail wellbeing situation as 'desperate'.
Many retailers — and employers as a whole — hoped that short-term measures would support colleagues through a short-lived Cost of Living crisis. But there is bad news: despite green shoots of optimism, the crisis double-dipped. The penny has dropped on a multi-year compounding of financial strain, and the vast majority of employees now feel as bad, or even worse, about money.
92% feel like the Cost of Living Crisis will "never end"
A huge majority (92%) of them feel like the Cost of Living Crisis will "never end" — even higher than the UK average of 88%. Money ranked as the top concern among retail workers at the beginning of the crisis, and continues to rank top in 2025. But the gap between money concerns and any other wellbeing concerns has widened — by a shocking 59%.
Better financial support also tops the list of reasons retail workers would move to another employer (46%) — followed by better shift flexibility (34%), which was more requested than across the rest of the workforce.
The retail sector is no stranger to crisis or change. Its ability to adapt is clear in the data: swift Cost of Living measures have been felt by colleagues, who actually trust their employer more than the average worker does across other sectors. Around half (53%) of retail colleagues feel their employer cares about their financial and mental wellbeing; banks (28%) and government (18%) rank far lower on trust, and in a recent study by Gallup, other employment sectors rank lower, too (21%).
But there seems to be a breakdown, at line or store manager level: despite that trust, colleagues are approaching line managers about financial issues less than the average worker.
Only 23.4% of retail workers have spoken to their line manager about Cost of Living challenges, compared with 30% across the UK workforce
As we'll explore later, this can be attributed to a feeling that line managers don't care enough, or at all, about their colleagues' wellbeing.
Zooming out, this 'suffering in silence' culture is contributing to huge issues impacting the health of the retail sector, like talent drain, absenteeism and presenteeism.
Above all, the Cost of Living has taken retail People teams into unfamiliar situations and conversations — increasingly thinking about the wider implications of financial stress, and about colleagues' ability to navigate the uncertainty of life.
In fact, well over half (57%) of retail HR Directors ranked 'helping people cope with uncertainty' as one of their top focus areas heading into 2025. This familial wellbeing approach can lead to greater trust and cultural embeddedness, but is challenging to secure long-term funding for at board-level — unless presented as an extension of the company's culture.
Owned by the Lewis family since 1988, and with a workforce that is 80% female, Wellbeing Lead, Joanne Earle, feels that gives River Island "a different type of culture — much more of a family culture". And it's a culture that ladders up to a hands-on role in helping colleagues prioritise their financial wellbeing.
While Earle concedes the competitive environment in retail has never been harder, she believes it's incumbent on retailers to find sustainable ways to make a positive difference in colleagues' everyday financial struggles.
"Retail is tough. In terms of our margins, price points, having the right product, converting customers that come into our stores, providing the right level of service and, I suppose the biggest thing for us, is balancing the needs of our people with the fact that we've got to make a profit." — Joanne Earle, Wellbeing Lead, River Island
In 2022 and 2023 River Island gave employees two extraordinary cost of living payments, while its longer term financial wellbeing strategy includes self-serve advice on its internal intranet supported by the Money Advisory Service.
This includes links to different resources for those in financial difficulties, who are concerned about an upcoming change in circumstances, or who need additional budgeting, mortgage or pension advice. River Island also runs a Care Fund, with the help of The Retail Trust, allowing employees to apply for grants when they find themselves in financial difficulty, which may include rent or council tax arrears, broken white goods, bereavement or escaping domestic abuse.
The jewel in the crown of the retailer's financial wellbeing strategy is its care packages, that help to relieve some of the financial burden of modern life. These include free access to food for breakfast and lunch in stores and at head office, as well as free hygiene products in colleague toilets.
"These are specifically tailored to what our people were telling us were their biggest issues. Some were having to make a choice between affording to get to work and affording to have something to eat. Now they can get to work and we're going to cover lunch."
River Island's retail locations also include Kindness Cupboards full of food and personal care products for staff to use inside and outside work, with each store given a monthly budget to stock up. "There's no questions asked," says Earle. "And people can make requests and the store leader will do a monthly shop. What I think is really good about that is the stores can make it individual to themselves."
Key to the success of River Island's financial wellbeing strategy is visibility of, and access to, help and resources. "Because we've done a lot to support financial wellbeing, what I think has happened is a lot more people have felt able to come forward and talk about the financial struggles that they're having."
This has led to an increase in the number of people talking to River Island's mental health allies about their finances, with Earle adding: "If I look at the themes of what the mental health allies are supporting with, I would say that financial wellbeing has to be at the top."
And an important takeaway for Earle is that it isn't just colleagues on the lowest salaries who are in need of support. "We've had people from all across the business with all different ages, all different seniorities, all different job titles needing support," she says. "The care packages are there for everybody."
It's clear that financial stress has rippled across retail workforces, and made its way up the corporate agenda: wellbeing is now a high-priority for almost two-thirds of retail CEOs and boards.
Despite facing exceptionally tough market conditions, inclusive leaders like River Island have acted swiftly and compassionately — investing in a range of safety nets and support measures. We will likely look back on this as a time when financial wellbeing became a 'basic' for retail employee benefits and value propositions.
27% worry about money every day — a 31% increase on the UK average
Colleagues have clearly noticed. As we explored, trust in retail employers remains above-average — beyond a flashing 'line management' light on the dashboard. Yet, retail employees are struggling. An above-average 56% of them are worrying more about money, noticing declining mental health as a result. And more than a quarter (27%) worry about money every day — a 31% increase on the UK workforce average.
So what's going wrong?
How do you know if you have 'good' financial wellbeing?
There has never been a single, universal answer. It's a topic we've explored in recent research efforts — and though not a definitive solution, even developed a 'FinWell Index' system with leading behavioural scientists at CogCo. The scoring methodology blends objective financial measures with more subjective, 'feeling' measures — because that is the reality of financial wellbeing. It is a holistic measure, and how we feel matters — because mindset has an impact on our attitudes and actions.
"Even just feeling more optimistic has a tangible, positive impact on ability to set aside savings — especially for low-income workers."
Optimism might seem like a 'fluffy' subjective metric, but it's critical. Recent studies among 140,000 people show that even just feeling more optimistic has a tangible, positive impact on the capability to set aside savings — especially for low-income workers.
In fact, optimism is so powerful the research found it can have a greater impact on levels of savings than financial literacy and risk tolerance. In other words, feeling good about our financial future helps us take positive financial action — making it one of the most powerful outputs of any financial wellbeing strategy.
This is helpful, specifically for retail HR teams, because it's an indicator retail colleagues score poorly on. Despite overall financial concerns being lower than they were four years ago, fewer than half of retail workers expect to be in a better financial position in a year's time. Optimism is a clear challenge retail teams can build their efforts around.
Mindset matters — and actions matter, too. Interestingly, retail employees seem to be more in tune with this than their well-intentioned employers.
As retailers invested in financial wellbeing during the Cost of Living Crisis, a pattern mirrored by other sectors played out: financial education was prioritised. 'Provide a hardship grant, support a colleague today…but provide financial education, and you'll support that colleague for a lifetime' — or so the logic seems to go.
The logic runs into two problems: firstly, it's simply not what colleagues want. When we ask them, they show a strong preference for more interactive methods, like 'coaching', or practical tools like better savings accounts.
Three quarters (75%) of household name retailers introduced financial education benefits last year. Fewer (50%) introduced other benefits like affordable loans and help to pay bills.
What colleagues actually want from their employer:
- 50% — Tools and support with saving
- 41% — Financial coaching
- 15% — Financial education
The second challenge takes this beyond just preference — it turns out this is demonstrably what colleagues need. Through the recent first run of our FinWell Index, we identified an 'action gap' between the financial behaviours people know are healthy, and the ones they carry out habitually. Colleagues want and need help to take action — more than they need help with financial literacy.
The action gap was most pronounced on savings behaviours, which is significant in retail for two reasons: it reinforces the value of optimism as an outcome, and it gives us a more actionable lens through which we can view one of the biggest challenges in retail financial wellbeing.
In our first FinWell Index, we found that savings habits were the leading indicator of a positive financial wellbeing score. And as the 'action gap' example shows, the vast majority of retail colleagues also know it's important. Yet, retail has a huge savings problem.
The UK workforce has a well-publicised savings crisis. What's not well-publicised is that this crisis is most severe in retail — and worsening over time.
In 2022, 17% of retail workers had under £500 in savings (compared with a UK average of 12%). By 2025, 37% had under £500 saved (compared with the UK average of 32%).
We delved even further into savings in this most recent study, and found a profoundly counterintuitive set of attitudes among retail colleagues.
It seems that beyond the surface-level action gap, there's a complex, contradictory set of attitudes being held on savings. Colleagues know they don't have the best savings rate they could, yet don't plan to switch; they aren't convinced their bank cares about their financial health, yet won't switch because that bank has 'always been good to them'.
The workforce is paralysed by Savings Stockholm Syndrome:
- 87% know they don't have the best savings rate possible
- 69% aren't convinced their bank cares about their financial health
- 66% aren't convinced their bank would alert them to better savings rates
- 91% don't plan to switch
- 26% won't switch because their bank has "always been good" to them
- 27% of them don't think there's any point switching
This deep-rooted, Savings Stockholm Syndrome phenomenon can be seen across the workforce, but is especially prominent in retail because of the huge savings deficit among retail workers. This should serve as a warning to retail employers aiming to include savings within their financial wellbeing policy: sub-par savings benefits will struggle for engagement. Only breakthrough savings benefits, which break through behavioural science barriers, will make a lasting impact.
It's clear there is truly no quick fix for retail, on financial wellbeing: it is a deep, complex topic that requires nuance and empathy.
Financial literacy is assumed to be important, but most retail colleagues don't want or engage with generalised financial education — many of us simply don't take action, even when we know something is beneficial and want to do it. In fact, sometimes, just feeling good has a bigger impact than financial literacy anyway. Optimism is important — and despite overall financial concerns being lower than four years ago, the majority of the retail workforce is still not financially optimistic.
The contradictions continue. More than one in ten (12%) UK households are 'co-holding' — choosing to borrow instead of using savings, or choosing to fund repayments instead of paying off debt using savings. Some people say they take this counterintuitive approach simply because it feels better to still have savings — and just 'educating the problem away' isn't likely to work, because the households doing this actually have a higher than average level of financial literacy.
Meanwhile, the savings gap is real, and a big opportunity. Yet, your savings offering will need to be extremely compelling to break through the 'stockholm syndrome' attitudes most colleagues will hold, otherwise impact may be low.
If you pay more than the basic rate of tax in the UK, you are actually in the minority: 80% of all tax payers are basic-rate tax payers. Yet, in workplaces we typically see higher-rate tax payers in senior roles, having to make assumptions and put financial wellbeing in place for a majority whose income levels and patterns are very different to their own. We know from the previous State of Financial Wellbeing index that this leads to an 'empathy gap' of finwell strategies that don't quite hit the mark.
But we also know from projects like Real Accounts, led by Nest Insight, that low-income and volatile-income households are actually incredibly resourceful and inventive in finding ways to have a more fulfilling (financial) life. They find ways to move between different money mindsets, despite having less income or more volatile income, and despite having access to fewer tools and resources to manage their money with. Just imagine how fulfilled they could feel, if given access to more tools and resources designed for them.
"What we've learnt from Real Accounts households is the need for more tailored solutions that offer financial stability in a world where fluctuation is increasingly the norm. We've written about the ingenuity, attentiveness and tenacity with which households manage the dips and spikes in their incomes within a system that works best for those on stable pay. In the absence of solutions that feel like they were made for them, people construct their own." — Nest Insight, Real Accounts: Fluctuation Nation, 2024
These are the inconvenient truths of financial wellbeing in retail. We hold multiple contradictory views on money; we exist in multiple different money 'mindsets' at the same time; a logical 'educate them and help them plan more' approach may be ineffective, or worse, backfire.
These truths paint a complex picture and make it feel hard to know where to start. But sometimes, simple and functional benefits can be a surprisingly good first-step in helping colleagues find financial balance — as the example of Poundland highlights well.
In the face of historically difficult economic conditions for both retailers and staff, Poundland's People Director Simon Wells believes companies need to get creative to support colleagues and make them feel valued.
"The competitive environment is hard. I'm talking as someone that's worked in retail now for 40 years and every year you say it gets tougher." — Simon Wells, People Director, Poundland
Rising costs across the board are particularly inflaming the current situation. "None of us are seeing the uplifts in our turnover to compensate for the increase in the cost of doing business, whether that's fuel costs in our fleet, or the cost of something like cocoa, which has gone through the roof," says Wells. "You're trying not to pass that on to the customer. But, if you're not, you can't invest it elsewhere."
This in turn is limiting retailers' abilities to provide additional financial support to colleagues, who are equally impacted by economic uncertainty. "Because of the reduced hours that we have in our stores at the moment, unfortunately the net result is that colleagues often need to get another job somewhere else to make those hours up," reveals Wells. "If I'm honest, a lot of our hourly workers are just focused on the here and now, they're living month to month."
In this environment colleagues are becoming increasingly focused on their financial wellbeing and Poundland is exploring different ways to support this.
"What we're seeing is that the financial stability of the company and money being paid is starting to feature much higher in our surveying and engagement data, going back to how it was 10-15 years ago," reveals Wells. "Where we can, we've focused on benefits that put immediate savings in their pockets. We're looking at ways to help people all the time but with the cost pressure and cost headwinds, it's just so difficult. It's about making sure that the limited money that we've got available is spent on the right things and having the right impact."
Operating across the UK and Ireland with 17,000 colleagues of varied age, demographic and needs, Wells admits: "One of the biggest challenges for a benefits provider right now is that it's harder than ever to try and find a solution that meets everybody's needs and is appreciated. For example, we give vouchers at Christmas to everybody to shop in our stores, but some would rather have that on the hourly wage instead."
In addition to the Christmas vouchers, Poundland runs staff discount events throughout the year, gives colleagues a paid day off on their birthdays and has a scheme with the Birmingham Hospital Fund (BHSF) to offer reduced-rate private medical insurance. Next year Poundland plans to introduce Stream "to help colleagues manage their own finances more effectively", according to Wells, and it works with Grocery Aid to provide wellbeing support, including financial advice, to colleagues.
Given the financial constraints faced by retailers, looking forward Wells admits: "We've got to try and find smarter ways to give them other benefits."
"We've got to find smarter ways to provide stability and help colleagues with work-life balance…greater flexibility in hours; greater visibility of rota in advance; going beyond the statutory minimum for things like sick pay, maternity and paternity leave." — Simon Wells, People Director, Poundland
"We've done quite a lot of work on our EVP in the last year," says Wells. "We've tried to focus on things like family-friendly policies that you might not expect from a value retailer, not only offering the statutory minimum for things like sick pay or maternity or paternity leave, but going above. Offering greater flexibility in hours, letting people know their rota four weeks in advance so they can plan. We're not taking on too many temps during Christmas, so we can give our permanent staff more hours."
Wells believes that empathetic policies like this can help colleagues better manage their financial and work-life balance challenges during these difficult times, helping to improve their overall wellbeing, while building greater loyalty towards the retailer.
The word 'living' is a concrete, immediate one: it conjures images of day-to-day life. And in the context of the Cost of Living Crisis, we tend to think practically — about fundamentals and basics that are more difficult right now, because of the costs we encounter daily, in-the-moment.
So as we reflect on retail's response to the Cost of Living Crisis, we inevitably, unintentionally, zoom in on short-term support and practical measures — becoming blind to the wider, whole-life impact it has been having on the people around us. The phrase, after all, is 'financial life' — not 'financial living'.
This dissonance becomes clearer when we look at a catch-all like 'social moments'. A pint with a friend; a niece's birthday party; a five-a-side football match; a dinner with friends.
Big or small, momentous or innocuous, these are the snapshot moments that many colleagues are missing out on more, because of money stress. They are the moments that can make a day or a month, help someone feel that life is worthwhile, and help someone feel better about their future.
This catch-all is also noteworthy because it applies to the vast majority of a workforce.
Close to half of higher-earners (42%) told us they miss out on social or recreational events due to financial constraints; one in ten (10%) say it happens at least monthly or more frequently. Even more low-earners (62%) said the same.
This may again feel subjective, but as we explored previously, how we feel is a significant part of our financial wellbeing. It's so important that it carries over into our financial actions, and can outweigh more rational measures like financial literacy.
Other experts forecast this wider, whole-life view will be how employers think about their dynamic with employees in future: wellbeing as an outcome of work, not just an afterthought.
"Mental health and stress at work has become much higher on everybody's agenda — seeing wellbeing as a strategy, and having a strategy rather than just dealing with issues ad-hoc as they arise. I think wellbeing should be a long-term outcome of work. Flexible working; support for work-life integration; more supportive cultures; reducing conflict and bullying and harassment. All these things should point towards the idea that a strategic outcome of good work is wellbeing. And that links directly into really, really important business outcomes." — Peter Cheese, Chief Executive, CIPD
Once employers sink more deeply into financial wellbeing and take a strategic approach, they tend to begin setting noble goals like helping more colleagues 'move from coping to planning'.
This feels like a logical strategy.
"In our latest Human Capital Trends research, human sustainability was identified as a leading trend. This was defined as: the degree to which an organisation creates value for people as human beings, leaving them with greater health and wellbeing, stronger skills and greater employability, good jobs, opportunity for advancement, more equity and heightened feelings of belonging and purpose. We're starting to see this shift take place with retailers refocusing policies on short-term and longer-term initiatives around flexible working, childcare support, access to healthcare and resources for mental and financial wellbeing." — Hazel Patmore, Partner, Human Capital, Deloitte
But these expert opinions build on what we learned in previous chapters: we need to think less prescriptively about what a good, achievable 'outcome' looks like for a colleague on financial wellbeing, and we need to think more holistically about money and the Cost of Life, not just the current Cost of Living.
Cost of Living (Narrow):
- Key living costs
- Reduce financial stress
- Support single money mindsets
Cost of Life (Holistic):
- Full financial life
- Improve subjective & objective finwell
- Enable flexing between money mindsets
This evolved, Cost of Life approach is helpful for retailers at any stage of maturity on financial wellbeing — from putting early stage support in place, to sharpening a multi-year strategy. And as Nest Insight highlights in its 'Bridging The Gaps' project, it's also instructive when we look at the specific benefits and programmes that help colleagues within different money mindsets.
The inclusive leaders featured in this report also offer many examples of how small, functional, low-cost benefits and changes can significantly improve a colleague's ability to flex across different money mindsets.
Offering better visibility of upcoming shifts and transparency about prospects of pay progression can help someone flex across into a longer-term mindset, for example, and feel more optimistic about how their finances will look in a month's time.
And as we now know, that can have a knock-on impact on other positive financial actions.
This is a proactive, methodical way to think about financial wellbeing. It should feel good for retail leaders because it represents the shift they yearn — from back-foot fire-fighting to front-foot strategy. It's just a more progressive, more effective approach than the 'coping to planning' narrative many of us defaulted to as the financial wellbeing trend emerged.
Over time, we expect this multi-mindset model to be a good way for retailers to engage with their colleagues on financial wellbeing, too. It's an inclusive, non-stigmatising way to have conversations with teams about what money means to them, and what benefits would help them the most.
Short-term mindset
Benefits: Support, EAP, Financial first aid, Debt helplines, Hardship grants, Emergency savings, Fair flexible pay, Cost of Living support
Wellbeing measures: Stress
Business measures: Absenteeism
Mid-term mindset
Benefits: Dialogue, Line manager interventions, Comms campaigns and supercharged signposting, Debt advice and education, Debt consolidation, Payroll savings, Living hours and shift flexibility, Financial wellbeing policy
Wellbeing measures: Confidence, resilience
Business measures: Presenteeism, productivity
Long-term mindset
Benefits: Culture-embeddedness, Technology-led self-serve, Coaching and nudges, Long-term credit health tools, Borrowing towards life goals, Whole-life savings (rainy day to retirement), Shift visibility, EFP (Employee-driven Finwell Proposition)
Wellbeing measures: Quality of life
Business measures: Customer experience, retention
Retail logistics specialists Wincanton takes a multi-pronged approach to financial wellbeing, with different strands of support available to help those in crisis, to offer day-to-day cost savings and to inspire positive behavioural shifts in the longer term.
Penny Hamilton, Head of People, Grocery, and Consumer at the company reveals that financial wellbeing is a key focus for Wincanton this year because of how it can impact overall wellbeing and job performance. "We've been on our wellbeing journey for many years now, where we've looked at a holistic view on employee mental health and wellbeing," she says. "We know that financial challenges affect all colleagues' mental health, which in turn affects their concentration levels and health and safety at work."
Wincanton gives colleagues access to the Happy App, offering discounts on groceries, restaurants and hotels, as well as money off health services such as eye care. The company also offers non-financial grants to those in need, which can be used, for example, to have a basket of groceries delivered to a colleague who is struggling to pay for food. Wincanton is also empowering colleagues to take charge of their own financial wellbeing.
"We have a campaign that looks at financial support, education and budgeting, looking at how colleagues are spending their money, how colleagues can save money, how they can really support themselves and proactively start to manage their own finances."
"Our main focus in 2025 is financial wellbeing and how we can support all our colleagues, not only when they go into crisis, but how we can be proactive to support them prior to going into crisis." — Penny Hamilton, Head of People, Grocery and Consumer, Wincanton
While working alongside The Retail Trust to achieve this, Wincanton is also set to partner with Stream to allow colleagues to get paid flexibly, create savings pots and manage budgeting. "What colleagues do with their salary is their private business," says Hamilton. "However, if we can support them with making sure that the salary lasts them throughout the week or month so that they may have some of that left at the end to put away and all of a sudden see savings building up, I think that's a benefit to everybody."
Hamilton reveals that enrolment to the Happy App amongst colleagues has risen significantly in recent years, as have visits to the company's Wellbeing Community page, which gives colleagues access to advice, guidance, research about financial awareness. "People are really utilising the offering that we've got within Wincanton as far as financial wellbeing is concerned," she reveals, and she puts this uptick in engagement on financial wellbeing down to the company's open and transparent culture, which aims to create a safe environment for colleagues to talk about their challenges.
And with Wincanton employing more than 19,500 colleagues across the UK and Ireland, ranging from its warehouse population and drivers to operational management and support staff, Hamilton warns that it is also essential to offer different access points to support for a diverse workforce made up of colleagues of all ages and with very different needs and levels of digital literacy.
"Having multiple avenues to gain that support is really important. It's about not excluding people. This is offering our colleagues, inclusively, a way to manage and educate their financial wellbeing." — Penny Hamilton, Wincanton
This report brings together Cost of Living experiences, the battle-tested examples of inclusive leaders in retail, and begins to offer a model for a fuller Cost of Life approach to financial wellbeing that helps all colleagues feel more resilient in moving between different money mindsets.
Resilience and flexibility are the key themes here. Every financial life is different; every workforce has its quirks; every strategy seems flawless until it's stress-tested in the real world. But there are clear areas that all retailers can hone in on right now, and feel confident their colleagues will be more financially resilient as a result.
Retail has a strong foundation of trust to build on, and overall colleagues (85%) say they have a good relationship with their manager.
But the relationship breaks down when it crosses the money line. Only 37% of those colleagues say their line manager cares about their financial health — 20% lower than the response across other sectors.
Recommendations:
- Use the Cost of Life approach to pinpoint a specific, trainable role for line and store managers on financial wellbeing
- Help them understand your overall approach on financial wellbeing, and why you've chosen to prioritise specific benefits — as this gives them context for the role they're expected to play
- Consider the potential for financial first aiders or money champions to spread the load, so that managers can focus on signposting and the values colleagues want most from them: approachability and flexibility, including on money issues
If you've made it this far, you're likely a financial wellbeing champion, lighting the way for other leaders in your organisation.
Help them evolve their view on financial education and capability, with these five key points:
1. Retail is diverse. Many colleagues are adjusting to financial constraints which didn't exist when they lived in another country
2. Most retail colleagues say they'd prefer practical tools over generalised money education
3. They are, however, open to more interactive, higher-engagement options like coaching
4. There is a financial 'action gap' which backs up these preferences, and makes practical tools and services more effective
5. Remember 50% of finwell is subjective. How we feel matters; even just feeling optimistic can be more powerful than financial literacy or risk appetite
Retail colleagues are in a severe savings deficit. A large proportion (37%) have almost no savings and many don't expect that to improve in the near-term.
This is the leading indicator of positive financial wellbeing and should be a high priority in financial wellbeing planning.
The attitudes we all hold on savings are complex and often contradictory — which means the savings benefits and tools offered need to be highly effective or they may struggle to make an impact.
Employers can break through that barrier on savings across different money mindsets, with initiatives such as:
1. Emergency savings tools and campaigns, which encourage colleagues to build up short-term buffers or work towards shorter-term goals
2. Payroll savings schemes, particularly auto-enrolment payroll savings, which have proven powerful and popular in trials for employers like Co-op and Bupa
3. Fully-fledged savings accounts, offering rates and access unavailable on the high street — in partnership with a third-party provider or credit union if necessary
Drive towards a technology-led, self-serve, Employee-driven Finwell proposition — with a range of tools and services that de-stigmatise money management and help colleagues flex between different money mindsets.
This aligns with the key things colleagues say they want: approachable line managers, combined with flexibility and autonomy. And it's an approach that can scale, make colleagues feel heard and be measured.
"It's not just about saying: here's an initiative, we've got a document, we've put it on an intranet and we're done. It's about weaving it into performance management, or line manager training, or conversations around culture. It's really clear that our colleague and employee experience will directly impact our customer experience. We've spent a long time getting really good insight about what would make a difference to them. When you present that to the executive committee, it's difficult to argue with." — Natasha Rice, People Director - Group Reward & Wellbeing, Tesco
State of Financial Wellbeing is one of the largest ongoing studies of financial wellbeing at work.
Launched in 2021, it blends data and analysis with expert opinion and lived experiences — painting a clearer picture of what builds financial wellbeing, what blocks it, and how we can work together to make it a reality for everyone.
The programme is led by financial inclusion and wellbeing experts at Stream and published in partnership with the FWF collective.
This latest index is based on:
- 4 years of data (June '21 – Jan '25)
- 8 independent studies
- The views of 17,647 workers and consumers
- The views of 2,047 HR and executive leaders
To find out more about FWF and gain exclusive early access to future State of Financial Wellbeing research, visit: www.finwellforum.com
Established in 1832, Retail Trust is the trade charity for the 4.5 million people working in retail and the supporting service industries.
We improve lives through our wellbeing services, vocational and career development programmes, and supported living estates.
The welfare of everyone involved is our key focus so we offer support through physical, emotional, financial, vocational and educational wellbeing and for the over 55s in supported living services.
One thousand employers — like Asda, Bupa, Burger King and the NHS — make work more rewarding, by providing Stream membership to their colleagues.
Those three million colleagues use Stream to manage budgeting, get paid when they choose, save for the future, chat to money coaches, access exclusive discounts and more — all in one app.
Stream is a B corporation, built with the Fair by Design financial inclusion campaign.
Talk to us about the positive impact we can have on your teams and your business.
