The One With Josephina from British Airways: Why Financial Empowerment Beats Financial Wellbeing

Summary

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Josephina joins Carl and David to explore the shift from financial wellbeing to financial empowerment — and why employers must think differently if they want people to make better financial decisions.

She breaks down the global design of BA’s award-winning financial empowerment program, the real drivers behind the pension gender gap, why reward must be seen as a value-creation function (not an admin one), and the mindset needed to successfully drive change inside a large organisation.

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Topics on the table:

• The evolution from HR administration to HR as a strategic engine
• How BA built a global financial empowerment program
• The difference between tools vs. true behaviour change
• Why the pension gap is a societal issue — and what employers can do
• Reward as a cultural force and a business risk-management lever
• Change-making: courage, influence, and rocking the boat
• Why simplicity and clarity matter more than theory in reward
• The importance of mindset for both employees and reward teams

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00:45 — A Career Built on Change and Making a Difference

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"One of my values is going in, making a difference, never leaving an organization the way that you met it."

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02:00 — Why Reward? Exposure, Emotion, and Influence

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"It touches every area of the organization… it is a big cost to the business, and it's also very emotive for people."

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05:30 — Salary Sacrifice Reform: Cost, Uncertainty, Planning

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"From an employer, obviously it’s going to matter because it’s additional cost. And no employer wants additional cost, particularly if it is led by legislation."

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"We’ve got three years until it comes into effect… we’ve got a general election… multiple budgets… businesses hate uncertainty."

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08:45 — Why BA Chose Financial Empowerment Over Wellbeing

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"It is really all about doing the right thing for your people… It’s helping people understand that mindset. I can give you as many tools as you want, and if they don’t have a mindset of saving money, then they’re not going to do it."

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12:30 — Making It Global: No Copy-Paste Policies

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"What does financial empowerment look like in each country? It’s not necessarily the same as the UK… it resonated with all of the countries because we tailored it to what we saw were the issues in that particular market."

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15:30 — The Pension Gender Gap: A Systemic Problem

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"When you look at it, the average amount that a woman has saved compared to men… men is almost double in terms of their pension pot. It’s quite scary, particularly for women over 50… I think we need to think differently about how we encourage women to save."

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19:00 — Reward as a Strategic Function, Not Admin

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"Reward touches every area of the organization… it finances your lifestyle… it is one of your biggest costs. But actually, they're making money for the business."

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"Some business leaders still disconnect business performance and people performance."

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23:00 — Risk, Reputation, and Legislative Awareness

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"Imagine what would happen if there is a strike… that is a massive cost at the bottom line."

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28:00 — Change-Making: Courage and Intentionality

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"There might be lots of opportunities… but they don’t have the courage to take it on. It does take a lot of resilience to go through the change curve… but that belief in you that says, ‘I’m going to see this through’ matters."

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33:00 — Final Advice for Change Makers

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"Go for it. It’s not about failure… you can at least try, and then you are further forward. That’s just life — just go for it."

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