We are proud to announce we have joined the National Coalition for Workplace Savings.
As set out in the government’s Financial Inclusion Strategy, the National Coalition for Workplace Savings has been established to increase the number of UK working age adults who have emergency savings, in order to help them become more financially resilient. The Coalition is an employer-led initiative including more than 21 leading employers across sectors, sizes and geographies. Collectively, they represent more than 400,000 employees.
Emma Norledge Deputy CEO of Wave Community Bank said:
“By joining the National Coalition for Workplace Savings, Wave Community Bank will continue to raise the profile of workplace savings and the tangible benefits these schemes have for employees. By helping to build their staff’s financial resilience, employers offering this service through payroll will help to reduce their workforce’s financial stress and improve their engagement at work. It’s great to see employers and providers working together to attract more employers to offer this service to their staff teams.”
Our mission
Too many UK working adults have little to no savings at all, leaving them financially vulnerable and burdened with the stress of having no safety net to fall back on. Our mission is to empower employers to support their workforce’s financial wellbeing through workplace savings schemes.
Over the coming years, the Coalition will encourage more employers to implement and increase participation in workplace savings schemes and continue to engage with savings providers who are innovating to achieve greater impact beyond the traditional opt-in models.
The coalition is a multi-year initiative led by employers to:
- Increase the number of UK employers offering workplace savings.
- Raise the number of UK employees saving through their workplace.
- Drive up the average participation rate for UK workplace savings schemes.
- Boost the number of employees in the UK with emergency savings driving up workforce health and proactivity.
Workplace savings are popular, inclusive and effective
Research shows that workplace saving schemes can help people start saving. Once they have them, they can build balances and use their accounts to weather shocks, save towards goals and manage their cash flow. This has positive impacts on their wellbeing and financial resilience.
Research by Nest Insight shows that a simplified sign-up process substantially increases participation. This is done via an opt-out or autosave model which enrols employees automatically unless they choose not to save. This approach is more inclusive and well-liked by employees and employers.
In Nest Insight’s pilots, savings participation was dramatically boosted – up from 1% to 48% of employees at SUEZ and from 15% to 68% at Bupa and Co-op.
The Financial Conduct Authority has issued a statement in support of workplace saving as an employee benefit, and HM Treasury encourages more employers to adopt innovative workplace saving approaches and to offer behavioural support in order to boost saving take-up in the Financial Inclusion Strategy.
Chorus
Wave Community Bank’s workplace savings scheme is called Chorus. You can find out more about it here: https://savewithchorus.co.uk/. We have over 40 employer partners currently and we want to encourage more employers to join the Chorus family. Employers interested in offering our services to their staff, can arrange a no obligation chat with our team.
Employers in East Sussex and Brighton and Hove please contact Jason Smith Jason.smith@avecb.org.uk
Employers in Jent, Medway or the London Borough of Bexley, please contact Jennifer Sutton Jennifer.sutton@wavecb.org.uk
