Making a genuine human impact with financial education

Established: 2000
Industry: Management Consulting
No. of employees: 18k

Introduction
Avanade prides itself on being a people-first business. One of Avanade’s aims is to make a genuine human impact, with values that support Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I). The success of their financial wellbeing strategy has meant that the Avanade team was shortlisted for ‘Financial wellbeing champions’ award at the 2023 Financial Wellbeing Impact Awards.

Challenge
In 2021, Avanade undertook a review of its entire benefits program, from both a market and a people perspective. It saw it had a well-structured wellbeing program in place but there was a gap for financial wellbeing. Throughout this process Avanade identified the link between poor financial health and its impact on mental health and wanted to address this challenge head on.

Solution
Firstly, to support people’s mental and financial wellbeing, it was important that the financial education is impartial and agnostic for employees to feel comfortable and safe in their journey to stronger financial health.

Avanade incorporated financial inclusion into its DE&I and wellbeing strategies. Through listening to the needs of employees, Avanade, along with a personalized financial education program, delivered nudge masterclasses, which were specific to the different demographics and the unique needs of employees. ‘Supporting the Sandwich Generation' masterclass saw 100 attendees learn about topics from investing, life after work, to understanding inheritances.

To further extend DE&I efforts, the team held a ‘Women in Money’ masterclass in response to employee concerns on the pension gap, investment gaps and the gender pay gap. Due to the success of the program, Avanade now offers its financial wellbeing benefit globally, extending to an additional seven countries across EMEA and LATAM, creating more opportunities for all its people to benefit from financial education