{"id":78174,"date":"2023-06-15T08:34:55","date_gmt":"2023-06-15T08:34:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cezannehr.com\/hr-blog\/2023\/06\/festival-of-work-2023-supporting-employees-cost-of-living-crisis\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T15:31:37","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T15:31:37","slug":"festival-of-work-2023-supporting-employees-cost-of-living-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cezannehr.com\/gr\/hr-blog\/2023\/06\/festival-of-work-2023-supporting-employees-cost-of-living-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Festival of Work 2023: Supporting employees through the cost-of-living crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Festival of Work returned to London\u2019s historic Olympia this month, and it was bigger, bolder and brighter than ever before. In fact, the queue just to get in snaked all the way into the borough of Kensington!<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The main exhibition floor was packed to the rafters with the best HR and learning technology on the market, and this included a team from Cezanne HR<\/a>. Our team of HR software product experts spent the day demonstrating the Cezanne HR system in all its glory, and taking in the sights and sounds of this ever-popular event.<\/p>\n

\"Cezanne<\/p>\n

This year saw a big shake up in how talks and seminars were delivered. Along with the usual throng of light and bright supplier stands, this year, the main exhibition floor was dominated by a huge festival stage, where many insightful talks and seminars took place throughout the day.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the biggest draw, though, was the opening keynote speech with television presenter Fearne Cotton. Her talk, in which she spoke candidly about the importance of self-care and setting boundaries, was made in front of a huge audience.<\/p>\n

She discussed her own personal battles with anxiety<\/a>, and spoke with some passion about how we all shouldn\u2019t fear mistakes or challenging times. This is because building personal resilience<\/a> will always be the bi-product of difficult times, and can ultimately help make us all stronger.<\/p>\n

\"Fearne<\/p>\n

She closed her talk by saying that, in her opinion, a good life is a challenging one. In addition, she believes that a huge part of healthy wellbeing is taking time out to be selective of things that make you happy, and not being too hard or critical of yourself. Wise words indeed.<\/p>\n

Her opening keynote certainly gave everyone food for thought. However, her talk was just one of many going on throughout the day \u2013 and there was one in particular that piqued my own interest\u2026<\/p>\n

Trends and solutions: a data-led approach to supporting employees through a cost-of-living crisis<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Taking place on the first floor of the exhibition, Vicky McNab<\/a>, Product Director at data analytics and consumer credit reporting company Experian<\/a>, delivered an insightful talk on how data can be used to better support employees during the cost-of-living crisis.<\/p>\n

\"Developing<\/p>\n

She opened her talk by stating that businesses will – whether they mean to or not – actively affect their employees\u2019 household finances, and there\u2019s a few reasons why.<\/p>\n

Firstly, employers will affect their employees\u2019 finances through what benefits they\u2019re offered, their wages, where they complete their duties or even their standard working hours. Secondly, it\u2019s also the case that over the past 3-4 years, the employer-employee relationship has significantly changed. Employees are looking to employers to help them navigate tough financial conditions, and this isn\u2019t just in the form of being paid more.<\/p>\n

Thirdly, increased diversity across the workforce<\/a> will also be a factor. This is because everyone has different aspirations and different needs, meaning not all renumeration packages or business perks will suit everyone.<\/p>\n

With those factors at play, it\u2019s now become increasingly difficult for employers to make intelligent decisions when it comes to building successful wellbeing strategies.<\/p>\n

Why employers can\u2019t afford to ignore the financial wellbeing of employees<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Vicky went onto say that, although wellbeing strategies are not often considered urgent business priorities, the current financial crisis should put financial wellbeing top of HR\u2019s agenda \u2013 and with good reason. This is because:<\/p>\n