The company educated just over 40,000 South Africans on how to manage their money in order to grow their wealth.
With just days remaining before the inaugural HR Indaba, the anticipation from partners is palpable. In this article, we speak to Hayley Goodwin Parry, the founder of financial education company Worth.
What is Worth, how long has it been around and what was the reason for starting the company?
“Worth is an independent financial education company that specialises in providing financial education to employees, through the company they work for. We offer easy-to-deploy online courses, as well as face-to-face training in both English & Zulu. Worth, and it’s sister company The Money School, have been educating South Africans since 2012.
“Our reason for starting the company was both personal, and important: we had learned first-hand of the pain that financial mismanagement can cause both at home and in the workplace and we set about resolving that. Since then we’ve educated just over 40,000 South Africans in how to manage their money in order to grow wealth.”
How do you differentiate yourselves from competitors in your space?
“I’d say it’s our focus on three key areas. Firstly, we’re independent. That means that we’re not going to sell your staff any products, offer them any loans or further jeopardise their financial situation. Certain institutions offer “free” financial education because they sell off the back end of it. We don’t. We charge upfront to educate your employees and often these training fees can be used to improve your scorecard. Secondly, we take care of everything. Not only do we educate your staff, but we give the HR team a toolkit to assist with two keys areas of learning: launching the benefit and then using the benefit. This takes all the guesswork out of it by the HR team and ensures we set everyone up for success. Lastly, we provide the HR team with access to a reporting dashboard so that they can monitor both the progress of and the impact on the staff of the benefit. return on investment for both parties is key for us and this is how we can tangibly show the return to you, for your investment in your staff’s financial wellness."
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Why have you signed up for the HR Indaba and what should attendees look forward to seeing from you at the event?
“We’re looking forward to meeting with top employers who understand that a great financial education will not only improve their employees’ bottom line, but also that of the business. We’d love to make a difference in the lives of more South Africans – through our innovative financial education offering – and we’re going to be offering a show special too. We’re also giving a talk at 1 pm on the first day of the event about the one metric that affects your employees’ ability to work, sleep and thrive. We hope attendees will come and listen to our talk as we unpack this metric and give them three strategic insights you can use immediately to impact employee engagement and wellness in their organisations.”
What would you say is the biggest challenge facing the HR profession?
“It’s becoming increasingly more complex to cover all the areas necessary to ensure engaged, and happy, healthy employees. Partnering with best-of-breed businesses who are invested in the success of a particular area of wellness – like Worth in the financial wellness space – will be key to ensuring optimal results without impacting on the HR professional’s day-to-day responsibilities.”
