Marvin OnumonuZellis has released the Financial Wellbeing Report 2025, showing that 92% of employees in the UK reported financial stress in the past year.
The report found that financial pressure is affecting both employees and business leaders, with only 12% of leaders saying they are not affected by money worries.
89% said their working lives suffered due to financial stress.
Almost half of employees found it harder to focus at work when dealing with financial anxiety, and more than a quarter said it made them less productive.
Among business leaders, 38% said money worries made it harder to communicate with their teams.
The report comes after the Government’s Financial Inclusion Strategy, which introduced financial education in English primary schools and promoted payroll saving schemes.
Zellis said employers have a responsibility to support financial wellbeing, as financial resilience is crucial for overall wellbeing.
The report also found that employees using financial wellbeing tools weekly had less stress.
54% of employees with access to these tools expected their finances to improve in the next year, compared to 43% overall.
78% of employees with access to financial wellbeing tools used them at least once in the past year, with 47% using them more than once a month.
78% said they contributed more to the business when confident about their finances.
Gethin Nadin, chief innovation officer at Zellis, said, “the cost-of-living crisis has not only exposed the fragility of employee household finances but has also laid bare the limitations of traditional employer support.
“Despite the data, headlines, and lived experiences of millions of UK and Irish employees, too many organisations remain on the sidelines.
“But financial wellbeing of employees is no longer a peripheral concern – it is a business-critical imperative.”
Nadin added: “This report shows employers must act not just out of compassion, but out of necessity for their own survival.”
Additionally, Zellis has announced updates to its HCM and Pay platform, launching Zellis Financial Wellbeing.
New features include artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled payslips to help employees understand pay details, real-time earnings trackers and benefits checkers, personalised financial education, money management tools, and earned wage access.
The earned wage access feature lets employees access up to 50% of their earned wages via mobile phone, leading to a reduction in overdraft fees for regular users.
Abigail Vaughan, CEO at Zellis, said, “Every organisation is focused on what comes next but this depends entirely on whether their people have the financial fitness to get there.
“Employers need to stop seeing financial wellbeing as a cost and instead realise it’s a crucial driver of growth and core to allowing people to reach their full potential.
“Employee financial wellbeing should be the concern of every member of the C-suite, not simply the concern of HR and People teams.”
