As part of Stress Awareness Month, we wanted to talk all things finance because, according to the Mental Health Foundation, money worries are the most common cause of anxiety here in the UK. We doubt that you’re going to be surprised by that; after all, you’d have had to have been living under a rock, or perhaps in a palace, to have missed the cost of living crisis that so kindly arrived just as our nerves began to settle following the two year pandemic.

In this blog, we’re going to explore what we, as a temporary staffing agency, do to help the thousands of team members that work with us enhance their financial wellbeing. We’ll also look at tips and tricks to manage your money and protect your mental health.

What We Do to Help You Financially

Holiday Pay Without The Stress, No Need to Request!

Did you know that some other staffing agencies make you request your holiday pay? Well, here at Arc, we know that you have better things to be doing with your time than requesting money that is quite rightfully yours (such as booking a holiday!) so we include holiday pay automatically on top of your hourly rate. No questions asked.

We advertise this when we publish our job vacancies and it is automatically included in your pay, with a breakdown of your actual earnings vs holiday pay accrued on your wage slip. In case you’re a fan of mathematics, holiday pay is calculated as 12.07% of your hourly rate.

Wagestream 

We wanted to make it easier for you, our team members, to manage your money and have the ability to access it if you needed to without having to wait until payday. So, we partnered with Wagestream, a financial wellbeing platform specifically aimed at frontline workers to help them manage their money.

You can access/stream up to 40% of your hours worked, when viewable in Wagestream. It also gives you access to a toolkit of simple-to-use, flexible financial products and services for managing your money easily, securely and more effectively every day. More on how to sign up for this later in our blog!

Wagestream also offers its users discounts on food and drinks, beauty, travel and leisure, fashion, home and electronics, saving you some money on everyday items.

The Real Living Wage

In our quest to shape the world of flexible work into a better place for all, we became a Recognised Living Wage Service Provider, championing our clients in paying our team members the real Living Wage or above. This means that when we are sending proposals to our clients, we will always show the base rate and the real Living Wage rate as options.

The real Living Wage is based on the cost of living and is currently 56p higher than the government’s National Living Wage, however, for full-time employees, this means that they’d still be £1,092 down each year on what they would earn if they were paid the real Living Wage. Each member of our core team (that’s those who work directly in our hubs) earn the real Living Wage or above.

Protecting Your Mental Wellbeing During the Cost of Living Crisis

In a study by the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health at King’s College London, 60% of Brits said that the cost of living crisis had negatively affected their mental health and for those who are struggling financially, 80% reported feeling negative about life.

Despite what it can feel like when you are experiencing poor mental health, there is help out there and available to you. Here are some options that you could consider:

Chatting to a Wagestream Financial Coach

If you are struggling financially and want to speak to someone who knows their stuff, Wagestream offers  a free service for you to speak to financial coaches. They have been trained by an industry-leading financial health organisation and can offer independent guidance and support to improve financial wellbeing.

You can access this feature once you have signed up with Wagestream, you can do this by:

Step 1: Download the Wagestream app

Step 2: Click sign up and enter the email address your employer has on file for you. This should be where you received an invitation from Wagestream.

NOTE: You’ll receive a prompt to verify your email. Don’t forget to check your inbox and verify.

Step 3: Return to the app and follow the instructions to complete the sign-up.

Step 4: You can start exploring some of the app’s features while your enrolment takes 1-2 days to process.

Speaking With Friends & Family

Although nobody likes to talk about money, especially when there’s a clear lack of it, speaking to people who you’re close to and trust can help alleviate some of the stress that accompanies money worries. You’ll be surprised at how common they are, most people have experienced financial issues at some point in their lives, including your own friends and family. They may have some knowledge that they can share with you.

Sleeping Well

According to a survey from the Mental Health Foundation, 30% of adults who have money worries have poorer quality sleep. Having a good night’s sleep is essential for our overall health and wellbeing but we all know how hard it can be when you’re stressed or worried to calm your nerves enough for you to drift into a deep and relaxing sleep. You can read through our blog on How to Manage Stress in the Hospitality Industry which also has some excellent sleep-inducing tips!

Enhance Your Personal Life With Free or Low Cost Things!

There are so many free or low cost powerful remedies to enhance your mental health wellbeing.

Getting Out and About

The first thing is to get out and about around your local area, whether that’s going for a jog in the park if you’re a fan of quiet spaces, or a walk around the city centre where you can soak up the vibes. If you live in one of our six hub cities including Liverpool, Manchester, London, Birmingham, Leeds or Glasgow, you’ll often find free events and attractions taking place throughout the year. Just search for “what’s on” followed by the location to discover all the events in your area BUT don’t forget to take your own homemade coffee at home to avoid the crazy cost of a flat white!

Spending Time With Y0ur Favourite People 

Ensure that you’re spending quality time with the people who mean the most to you. Schedule in some catch-ups throughout the week at home, friends and family can be like medicine when you’re experiencing poor mental health. Watch films, play board games, cook food or even just have a good venting session – it helps you to feel you.

Get Reading! 

Why not get to a library? A study from the University of Sussex showed that reading can reduce stress levels up 68%! Whether you’re a fan of fiction or fancy a read about one of your favourite celebs, there’s nothing quite like delving into another world from your sofa and forgetting about your problems for a little while. This can be the perfect alternative to a night out, minus the difficulty getting taxis, cost of drinks and of course, the hangover. It’s a win win situation.

Go Exercise

Exercising is free and does wonders for your mental wellbeing. You don’t necessarily need a gym subscription to exercise, there are plenty of free online resources on the likes of YouTube and TikTok for you to follow. However, if you’re looking to get out of the house and exercise, you can find some gyms which are relatively cheap and offer no contracts, so you only pay when you actually go!