UK Power Networks launches financial education programme to boost employee wellbeing – Nudge

UK Power Networks, Britain's largest electricity network operator, has unveiled a new financial education programme for its 5,700-strong workforce in conjunction with Nudge. The programme is part of UK Power Networks’ commitment to providing a comprehensive wellbeing programme encompassing mental, physical and financial aspects.

Steve Remnant, Head of Reward and HR services, said:

‘Ensuring UK Power Networks is a great place to work is critical to us and we’re proud to be the only electricity distributor to feature in the “Sunday Times Top 25 Best Big Companies to Work For” list and “Utility of the Year”. Nearly 40% of our people have worked for us for 15 years or more, and it’s important that we continue to innovate our employee benefits strategy to stay at the forefront of the market in how we support our people to improve their wellbeing.’

The launch is the latest evolution of the firm’s strategy that has already seen it run a ‘Your Energy’ programme with Olympic athletes helping employees build their physical and mental resilience, as well as adding access to workplace loans.

Remnant adds:

‘We have a diverse employee base who often work away from our main offices, which can make the communication of benefits, a challenge. Feedback highlighted that our people would like more help when it came to managing their personal finances to help them improve their financial wellness. Having introduced workplace loans we wanted to expand on this, recognising the diversity of our employees’ interests and needs. When selecting our provider it was important to us that we choose a service that was independent of product bias, offered content that’s diverse and inclusive, and was accessible when and where our people needed it.’

UK Power Networks delivers electricity to over eight million homes and businesses in London, the South East and the East of England, employing 5,700 employees including electricians and engineers.

Nudge will provide Financial Education to UK Power Network’s people in two ways.

• Via nudges – emails or texts which work on the basis of a series of triggers pushing out education to employees based on what ‘people like you’ are learning about, their interests, lifestyle choices or legislation changes. These are automatically personalised according to employees’ demographics, salary and benefit choices.
• Employees also have access to an online platform that enables them to access tools and articles on over 800 personal finance topics as well as the ability to configure their ‘nudges’, add additional information about themselves (e.g. partner’s income, adult dependants), and to set their financial Dreams and Goals.

Nudge will also be deployed to help employees better understand and take advantage of the benefits available to them through UK Power Networks such as their employee assistance programme (EAP), rental deposit scheme and workplace loans.