Financial education at work: use ‘just-in-time’ thinking

Financial education is often the first step in a financial wellbeing strategy – it’s important, but it is not sufficient to achieve genuine behaviour change and improved financial wellbeing.

If you learn something new, you’re likely to forget about it – unless it immediately drives action.

The reality of day-to-day ‘stuff’ erodes information we’ve learnt historically and the ability of this information to drive new behaviours.

A study from Fernandes et al found that within 20 months almost everyone who took a financial literacy class forgot most of what they learned.

There’s no point learning about something that doesn’t become relevant to you for two years. Traditional methods of training and communication, such as workshops, tend to be delivered on set schedules that do not take into account individual life stages.

You need to think about bite-sized delivery at the point of need – automation and technology can help facilitate this transition. Just-in-time delivery means providing impactful content to shift behaviour at the point or very close to the point of decision-making.

Try targeting moments where money conversations or decisions about money may be taking place anyway. You set up a pensions contribution review when people get promoted or a life insurance conversation when someone is about to take parental leave.

This article explores one slice of our full, free report, ‘The truth about financial education at work‘. Download it below.