TERN is a social enterprise helping refugee entrepreneurs create and develop businesses across the UK. Their goal is to launch 2000 refugee-led businesses by 2025.

To do that, they need a team that is passionate, driven, and committed. But for social impact companies like TERN, keeping talent in the sector is difficult as people get older. Charlie Fraser, the company’s Co-Founder, explains…

“In the social impact sector, employees know they may have to sacrifice some of their own financial security to work on making the world a better place. We’re looking to change this, but the sacrifice is still there."

“The problem is that over time, as employees become more established and knowledgeable about their own financial future, they drift away from social impact. They recognise how much capital they need to sustain their livelihood.”

“This leads to a talent drain, especially when progression pathways can be limited."

The importance of good financial wellbeing to TERN

When working in social impact, good financial wellbeing takes on a different weight. Employees have to be more conscious and open about their finances so they can do more with their salary and prepare better for their future.

This is something Charlie wants for his team: “we need to help people engage with financial wellbeing and give them access to the support they need. This will make working in social impact a more attractive proposition.”

“It’s a more mature approach and ultimately it will mean retaining staff. This was a big incentive for us adopting Bippit. It’s the ethical thing to do, but we also need the type of expertise that we build up in social impact to stay and remain committed to causes.”

Why TERN partnered with Bippit

Around two thirds of the entrepreneurs TERN works with are financially insecure and living in relative poverty. In order to better support them, Charlie was keen to up-skill the TERN team so they felt confident talking about money in a way that would empower TERN’s community.

Charlie says: “When we started talking to the Bippit team it seemed like a really nice marriage between enabling our community whilst also offering our team more broader support in their lives.”

“Our team is very diverse - demographic, gender, age, and experience-wise. Financially they have different concerns which makes understanding your payroll and savings quite difficult. It’s why I like Bippit so much. They are ahead of the curve in making sure that access to financial coaches is an everyday occurrence and not just for the super wealthy.”

It’s through our expert coaches that each employee can get 1-1 support via video or messaging. This impartial help is something 88% of employees now want (according to PWC’s Financial Wellness Survey).

Giving TERN the flexibility their team needs

When we started Bippit, we knew how important it was to be flexible and open, both from a product and service perspective. This is something Charlie was looking for…

“The way Bippit is approaching things, and the fact that they’re a young and growing company, allows us more playing room to make it appropriate for our team. They’ve been very flexible.”

“I was super impressed by the product. Bippit recognises that people learn in different ways. We have some team members who want to do a live chat, and others who want to have pre-submitted questions to guide the conversation. The fact Bippit can do both is great.”

“You can see budget breakdowns for your spending, and the platform has so many useful API integrations with the different options of connecting your bank accounts and showing your savings.”

The story so far

Charlie says: “Bippit will massively build on our culture of support. A culture that looks to recognise the sacrifices team members make for working in our sector.”

“Bippit is trying to look at things through a different lens and that's what really excites me about it. They're democratising access to financial coaches which is a really powerful concept.”

Along with the likes of What3Words and Twinkl, TERN is one of the many companies benefitting from Bippit’s all-in-one financial wellbeing platform.