The missing skill: personal financial management
03-JUL-09
One of four training workshops on the schedule of the Second Annual National Secretaries Conference (NSC 2009) will address Personal Money Management for Office Professionals.
The conference takes place from 2-3 September 2009 at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg, Johannesburg, coinciding with Secretaries Day on 2 September 2009.
The aim of the workshop is to improve the personal money management skills of the office professional, so that personal financial stress can be reduced or avoided and personal wealth can be generated.
Personal financial management education has not been high on the agenda in many human resource departments in South Africa.
This can be attributed to the fact that effective personal financial management is not seen as an essential workplace skill. Employers therefore do not view personal financial training of employees as their responsibility.
Research, however, indicates that workplace personal financial training leads to increased work and pay satisfaction, greater organisational commitment, higher productivity levels and decreased absenteeism.
Sound personal financial management by employees reduces the loss of productivity resulting from absenteeism and low employee morale.
A study of call-in clients of a US national, non-profit, credit counselling organisation found that employees with higher financial stress levels reported higher levels of absenteeism than others.
The study concluded that financial education in the workplace was a tool to help employees deal with and reduce financial stress (Kim, Sorhaindo, & Garman: 2006) 1.
Employees who have been trained to plan their financial future have fewer financial worries and are free to focus on workplace goals. Hira & Loibl (2005) 2 in their study, Understanding the impact of employer-provided financial education on workplace satisfaction, discovered that employees who participate in workplace financial education were more likely to show higher levels of financial literacy.
Increased financial literacy led to higher confidence levels in their financial future, which in turn led to work satisfaction and workplace support.
When employees know how to manage their money, they are able to make informed financial decisions. The old adage, it’s not how much you make, but how much you make with what you make, comes to mind.
Kim (2000) 3, in a study of The effects of workplace financial education on personal finances and work outcomes, found that workplace financial training could motivate employees to be more committed to their organisation and increase their pay satisfaction.
Prof Nico Swart (2005) 4, author of Personal Financial Management: the Southern African Guide to Personal Financial Planning (IPG: 2004), maintains that employees with the skills to increase their professional productivity, but without the knowledge to manage their own finances will not be able to realise their full potential in their career.
Personal money management has been included as one of the focus skills of the conference, because it has been overlooked for so long.
The conference theme this year is, Get Skilled! The conference will address a diverse skills set, viz. being brilliant at the basics, conflict and crisis management, managing stress in the workplace, ensuring good ergonomics in the office and getting the most out of digital technologies.
Other training workshop options are: Personal Assistant Training, Assertiveness Training and Events Management for Office Professionals. Delegates will also enjoy a Secretaries Day Pan African Dinner and a Lesedi Boma tour.
Conference fee options are:
• Payments by 10 July 2009: R4 975 per person
• Payments by 6 August 2009: R5 875 per person
• Government orders and payments by 20 August 2009: R6 475 per person
• Emergency registrations and payments after 20 August 2009: R6 975 per person
All prices include VAT, conference attendance, a full-day training workshop, Secretaries Day Pan African Dinner and Lesedi Boma Tour, but exclude accommodation. Special accommodation packages are available on request.
Full Conference details, including the programme and registration form, can be downloaded from: www.pdesa.co.za or you can direct your queries to:
Elaine: E-mail: elaine@pdesa.co.za Cell: 079 617 6708 Fax: 086 666 1767
Or Orion: E-mail: orion@pdesa.co.za Tel: 021 906 6041 Fax: 086 617 7832
For more information on Poussière d’étoiles, Professional Conference Organisers, visit the Skills Portal Training Directory
*Information contained in this article is an excerpt from an unpublished MBA thesis by Esther Josias, entitled, The personal financial management of employees of the University of Limpopo: Turfloop Campus, Turfloop Graduate School of Leadership, Polokwane: 2007.
1. Kim, J., Sorhaindo, B. & Garman, E. 2006. ‘Relationship between financial stress and workplace absenteeism of credit counseling clients’. Journal of Family Economic Issues. 27: 458-478
2. Hira, T. & Loibl, C. 2005. ‘Understanding the impact of employer-provided financial education on workplace satisfaction’. The Journal of Consumer Affairs. Summer. 39 (1): 173-194.
3. Kim, J. 2000. The effects of workplace financial education on personal finances and work outcomes. Unpublished Doctoral Thesis. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University: Blacksburg.
4. Swart, N. 2005. ‘Why financial literacy is a complete failure’. Management Today, 21 (2): 48-50
