After almost a year, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on employees is starting to show in full. Companies and employees alike are facing the biggest cashflow problems in years. Many of them are running on empty. According to an LMC survey conducted in waves last year, more than half of people faced a drop in their income. Some families lost only part of it, while others found themselves right on the edge of an existential crisis and debt traps.
Hand in hand with these developments goes worsening mental health. Three times more depression, twice as much anxiety, serious psychological conditions affecting hundreds of thousands of people—that's what the survey shows. The work productivity of an employee with a mental illness drops significantly. A person suffering from depression can waste up to a third of their working time. Added up across the board, companies are losing billions of crowns just in lost wage costs alone.
At the same time, the crisis has not hit the labour market completely evenly—so the gap is widening, both between employees and between companies. In a crisis, people expect support, help, and appreciation from their employer more than ever before. According to a 2020 Advanto survey, as many as 70% of Czech employees expect help and support from their employer if they run into financial difficulties.
Employees are now much more focused on money and financial benefits. They are dealing with liquidity problems and need flexible access to money—for example, in the form of being able to draw their own wages more often. The most important benefit for 2021 is security and stability.
What money-related problems trouble Czech employees the most?
Trouble managing income and expenses, the weeks before payday that Czech families have to get through on a bare minimum of their monthly income, a lack of savings, and expensive, risky solutions in the form of loans or microloans. That, in short, is the financial reality facing thousands of Czech households—a situation made even worse by a Covid-19 pandemic that has, by now, lasted almost a year.
What kind of help do Czech employees expect from their employer?
It's clear, not only from this survey, that people are aware that taking on debt is not the answer. Yet many of them have no other choice and gradually fall into debt traps. Advanto can help solve this situation. So what exactly can the service do?
Want to find out more about Advanto, its benefits for employees and employers, and how it works in practice? Download the Advanto e-book.
