Kyle Watson (right) explains the principles of money management to the We Are Zest team. Pic: We Are Zest
A St Andrews café owner who’s closing during the busy Lammas Fair to give staff an expert money management workshop as part of a package of Cost of Living support measures, is telling other employers they can and should think holistically about how they can help staff.
On Tuesday August 16, while the annual Lammas Fair creates one of the town’s peak visitor periods, St Andrews social enterprise café We Are Zest will be closed.
Because its mission is to support people with additional needs, including mental health issues, it always closes for staff training during the fair because it provides a much-needed break to recuperate during high season and the noise and lights of the fair rides can cause sensory overload for autistic team members and those with anxiety. On Tuesday morning the training topic will be personal money management and the teacher Kyle Watson, a partner at local independent financial advisers Whyte Sharpe Independent.
Training
He’ll be running through how to do a home budget, where to find quality information, where to go for help, the importance of saving and relevant savings schemes to help Zest’s staff manage the money they earn more effectively and plan for their futures.
It’s the latest in a package of measures Zest is putting in place to help its staff with the Cost of Living crisis. Already, owner Lisa Cathro has spoken to staff individually to find out what their needs are and responded to them by making advances on their monthly salaries available when an unexpected cost causes them financial and emotional stress.
She also offers them extra hours, where possible, doing non-café service tasks such as writing blogs and posts for its website and social media – an example of a creative approach she recommends other employers should take when seeking to help staff with rising food and fuel bills.
Profit-sharing
Next year, once the social enterprise has paid off debt it racked up during Covid lockdowns in order to stay afloat, Lisa plans to offer her people a profit-sharing scheme where profits made during the busiest months can be shared with staff during the quieter ones when their heating bills will be higher. To help the café become debt-free as soon as possible. She’s also fully transparent with the team about the financial position of the business, with regular updates, resulting in higher engagement and understanding of how their business works.
Her approach of asking, listening, discussing and responding holistically with relevant help within the means of the business is the approach she recommends other employers take – so they can help their teams, but also cut their costs through higher retention and employee engagement.
“All employers should be talking to their staff about how best to support them as individuals more than ever, it’s the best way to find out what will be most effective. Then get creative and look at the whole picture of their life. Some of our younger staff have no experience with budgeting, so the session with Kyle will teach them how to do that.
Inclusive recruitment
“More generally, we need more inclusive recruitment – a willingness to hire people not just like us or those already in the business. About 80% of our team are supported with disabilities, yet we have a 0.5% absenteeism rate versus the 2.2% UK average, a 7% churn rate compared with the 30% average for hospitality and no issues attracting candidates or recruiting locally.
“Our staff have the same labour productivity as comparable teams. There are more than 2 million disabled people looking for employment, but often unconscious bias in recruitment filters them out, leaving that potential untapped. If employers open their eyes to the potential of these people and support them, they can improve their business, and bottom line, as well as do the right thing morally.”
For more ideas about how to help their staff with the Cost of Living, Lisa recommends employers go here on the Business Energy Scotland site https://businessenergyscotland.org/guides/show-staff-how-save-home/
Speaking about Tuesday’s session, Kyle Watson says: “I’m happy to be supporting local people and the businesses they work in through financial education. Financial planning is a life skill everyone needs to be good at and which should be taught in schools and other education settings.”
For more about We Are Zest and how it supports its staff, go to https://wearezest.co.uk/journal/