Blue Monday started life as a marketing stunt and now hits the news every year. While it’s impossible for one day to be the ‘unhappiest day of the year,’ Blue Monday presents a valuable opportunity to build our employees’ financial wellbeing if we approach it in the right way.

Blue Monday falls in January - the month of self-reflection

People self-reflect in January about what’s important to them because the new year is seen as a time of renewal. It’s why people change jobs in January, commit to healthier habits, or plan to spend more time with their family.

But why is Blue Monday a good opportunity to promote financial wellbeing? Because it falls in a month when people are looking inwards.

Self-reflection is an important part of improving financial wellbeing

The best way to improve our financial wellbeing is to clarify our goals, dreams and ideals and re-organise our money around achieving these. This method lights the fire of long-term motivation. Without long-term motivation, it’s easy to fall back to old ways.

Encourage your employees to self-reflect on Blue Monday - here’s what to do

Resist the temptation to label Blue Monday as the unhappiest day of the year. It’s not true and it won’t help your employees improve their financial wellbeing.

Here’s what to do instead:

• Make the link between values and goals and financial wellbeing - give examples of how goals can encourage positive financial behaviour
• From this point, encourage self-reflection among employees on what’s important to them now, in the short-term and medium-term and in the long-term
• Provide a formal method for them to capture this information and store it somewhere safe

Why do you need to provide a way for them to capture this information?

Because it’s the catalyst for engagement with financial wellbeing campaigns throughout the year.

Double down on action - financial wellbeing follow-up to Blue Monday

People are much more likely to do something if they can see how it helps them achieve a specific goal. Armed with a list of their short-term and long-term goals and values, your team will be better able to see why the behavioural changes you encourage in your financial wellbeing campaigns are so important to achieving what they want.

You may run a campaign in March, for example, on saving money. Saving money is essential to financial health. At the beginning of March, you can ask people what they most want to save for, and give them a starting point of re-engaging with what they wrote down for Blue Monday.

People are much more likely to build the savings habit if they feel it’s moving them towards an achievement that’s linked to what they really want. Think of the parent saving hard to take their kids on a dream holiday.

Bippit’s team of FCA-recognised financial coaches are helping organisations to educate their employees on why focusing on their mindset can transform long-term financial wellbeing, leading to greater satisfaction and focus at work.

If you’d like to find out more, get in touch today.