Caitriona Ellis
Financially stressed employees cost their employers attention, productivity, and ultimately retention. Most workplace wellbeing programmes treat mental and physical health seriously but leave money worries unaddressed, even though financial anxiety is one of the most common pressures staff carry into work. The gap between what people earn and how secure they feel rarely shows up in an engagement survey, but it shows up in turnover.
Caitriona Ellis is a qualified financial adviser who helps organisations address employee financial wellbeing as a driver of engagement and retention, drawing on her own recovery from financial hardship.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Caitriona Ellis
- She connects employee financial wellness directly to retention, giving HR and reward leaders a way to frame money support as a workforce outcome rather than a soft benefit.
- Her credentials as a qualified financial adviser mean the content stands up to scrutiny, which matters when an employer is putting financial guidance in front of staff.
- She speaks from a first-person recovery from serious financial difficulty, so audiences who feel quietly ashamed about money see someone credible who has been where they are.
- Her corporate sessions carry no product sales or advice agenda, which lets an employer put financial guidance in front of staff without the conflict of interest that adviser-led content usually brings.
Biography highlights
- Qualified financial adviser with an honours Commerce degree and a career background in the banking sector.
- Founder of the Financial Wellness Academy, running structured financial wellbeing programmes for individuals and organisations.
- Buy-to-let property investor who acquired six properties remotely in the North East of England within a single 12-month period.
- Fellow of the National Estate Agents Association, with a Level 4 qualification in Residential Estate Agency.
- Delivers keynotes, workshops, and financial wellbeing programmes to employers, behaviour-led and free of any product or advice agenda.
- Regular speaker and podcast guest on financial wellness, including Institute of Directors International Women’s Day events and International Women Connected.
Biography
Money is the wellbeing problem most employers leave out. Mental health and physical health have a place in the corporate programme; financial anxiety, which sits underneath both, usually does not. Caitriona Ellis built her work in that gap, founding the Financial Wellness Academy to bring structured financial education to people who carry money stress quietly.
Her authority rests on two things that rarely sit together. She is a qualified financial adviser with an honours Commerce degree and a banking background, so the technical content is sound. She has also worked her own way out of serious financial difficulty, which is why audiences who feel exposed about money tend to trust her rather than tune out.
That credibility extends into practice. She is an active buy-to-let property investor who acquired six properties remotely in the North East of England inside a year, and a Fellow of the National Estate Agents Association. Her corporate sessions carry no product sales or advice agenda, so an employer can offer staff real financial guidance without the conflict that adviser-led content invites.
For an organisation, the argument she makes is concrete: employees who feel in control of their money are easier to keep. She frames financial wellbeing as a retention lever, the part of the employee relationship that engagement surveys miss and exit interviews reveal too late.
Key speaking topics
- Employee financial wellbeing
- Financial literacy and money confidence
- Financial wellbeing and staff retention
- Women and money
- Personal resilience and financial recovery
- Property investment and income diversification
Ideal for
- CHROs, reward, and benefits leaders building or reviewing an employee wellbeing programme.
- Employee resource groups and women’s networks running financial confidence sessions.
- Organisations whose staff are visibly affected by cost-of-living pressure and financial stress.
Audience outcomes
- Audiences leave able to name the first practical steps to take control of their own finances, regardless of starting point.
- Employees who felt isolated about money see that the problem is common and addressable, lowering the shame that keeps it hidden.
- HR and reward attendees leave with a clearer case for treating financial wellbeing as a retention issue, not a perk.
- Audiences gain a basic working understanding of income diversification and longer-term financial planning.
Talks
A keynote distinguishing the technical mechanics of financial wellness from the behavioural and emotional habits that sustain it.
Key takeaways:
- The difference between the technical and behavioural sides of managing money.
- How small, sequential steps build lasting financial wellbeing.
- Why financial wellness is reachable from any starting position.
A personal-story keynote tracing a recovery from acute financial hardship back to financial stability.
Key takeaways:
- How financial circumstances can unravel, and how they can be rebuilt.
- The role of personal responsibility and small actions in recovery.
- A concrete next step toward financial security.
A practical keynote setting out the everyday habits and simple actions that protect household finances when budgets are under pressure.
Key takeaways:
- Five practical actions anyone can take to soften the impact of rising costs.
- How stronger financial literacy reduces day-to-day money anxiety.
- Why financial recovery is possible from difficult starting circumstances.
A keynote on why many workplace pensions will fall short of the retirement people expect, and the practical steps an individual can take to close that gap.
Key takeaways:
- Why a workplace pension alone often will not fund the retirement employees assume it will.
- How income diversification, including property, can close a projected shortfall.
- A first step each attendee can take to assess their own gap.