Major local employer, Fusion, part of the BGL insurance group, has launched a new personal financial education programme for its staff across the UK. The company has developed a comprehensive Wellbeing Programme for its employees, which encompasses; health, happiness, fitness and relaxation and the latest addition aims to help staff improve knowledge of their personal finances.

The new 'making the most of your money' seminars cover areas such as, basic financial planning, borrowing, savings and investment, as well as preparing for retirement. So far more than 170 members of staff have signed up for the sessions which will be delivered by the Money Advice Service (formerly the Consumer Financial Education Body). In addition, for the company's higher earners Tax Efficiency seminars have been designed by financial advisors, AWD Chase de Vere, to cover topics including: income tax, capital gains tax and tax efficient investment products. There is also a dedicated 'MoneyMatters' portal promoting a variety of online information and a suite of literature available at all sites.

Lucy Painter, Associate Director for HR at the BGL Group, said: "We take seriously our responsibility for employees' wellbeing and have a comprehensive programme in place which runs across all of our UK sites. We know that life is a little harder for everyone at the moment, so to try and support employees we have added personal financial management to the mix.

"The provision of financial education in the workplace is becoming increasingly common but we wanted our offering to be as valuable as possible for staff. We have been supplying Employee Assistance Programmes and pension advice for some time, but the idea behind the new seminars is to help employees improve and develop knowledge of their own personal financial wellbeing and to give them opportunities and resources to take control. In addition, we have a range of useful literature available to ensure that we are able to offer ongoing support on these important topics to our staff."

Fusion employee, Susan Saunders took part in the 'making the most of your money' session, and commented: "There is so much information available to consumers - so for the company to be able to offer easy to digest seminars is invaluable. The workshops supplied lots of useful ideas that I have not thought of, such as making your money work harder by saving into investment ISAs rather than, or in addition to, cash ISAs. I also discovered that my dreams of early retirement aren't as unachievable as I once thought and I was given pension and investment guidance to help realise this goal. I will be investigating further in the coming months."