What made Southern Cross Care Queensland decide to focus on financial wellbeing?

Engagement with your staff has to be more than ‘thanks for coming to our monthly barbeque’. It’s about looking after staff in the workplace and also being able to support them in all aspects of their lives. We’ve gone through a pandemic that has certainly brought people’s consideration of work and life balance to the forefront.

Staff are looking for employers that are going to involve them and also understand their struggles, concerns and difficulties so that they’re able to support them and their families in ways that promote financial security, financial wellbeing, as well as physical and mental wellbeing. 

‍

‍

Why did you decide to partner with Humanforce Thrive to try and improve financial wellbeing?

We wanted to give staff more control in terms of managing their day-to-day life. A lot of our staff have lots of things going on in their lives, they’re from diverse backgrounds, it’s a female-dominated workforce  and lots of things can come along that can impact their capacity to manage their day-to-day finances and life.

Having worked as a facility manager in aged care I’ve seen firsthand the struggles that staff face when they have to pay a bill and put petrol in their car so they can get to work. Humanforce Thrive means we’re able to give flexibility to staff to make sure they can get through rough patches.

‍

What was the implementation process like with Humanforce Thrive?

It wasn’t complex, it was simple and really quite seamless. We did some education with staff and managers but really it’s so self-explanatory and the set up was so straightforward that people got the app and started using it from day one.

Because of how simple it is and the services and support that people get from the app, word of mouth will probably mean that the adoption rate will continue to grow moving forward. As people use the app they’ll tell their friends.

‍

There has been strong adoption so far with one in every four team members using the Humanforce Thrive app, does that exceed your expectations? 

We didn’t have a lot of expectations. I knew from our conversations we had with Humanforce Thrive and also knowing our staff that this would be something our staff would find useful. Of the 1,200 staff we have about 1,100 who are frontline workers who will find this a useful tool, even if it’s not today, at some point throughout their time with Southern Cross Care Queensland.

There are ways to grow your savings, goal setting and of course as we head into quite a turbulent time with inflation and interest rate rises people are looking for support in this space. It doesn’t surprise me that’s where we sit in terms of adoption. 

I’m really pleased that it’s been so quickly taken up by staff. We have a couple of benefits that are really good for staff and sometimes people don’t make the time to use them even though it’s in their best interest. So it’s great people have jumped onto Humanforce Thrive as quickly as they have.

‍

What results are you hoping to see from implementing Humanforce Thrive?

For us it was about knowing our staff and caring for our staff and this was an opportunity to do that. Humanforce Thrive is a really good way that we can look after and support our staff.

We believe if our vision is to look after and care for our staff and families it will naturally lead to better talent attraction and retention. Humanforce Thrive is certainly part of how we hope to do that.