Research and innovation centre Nest Insight has partnered with financial wellbeing provider Wagestream to launch a new workplace emergency savings pilot.

It will explore how to help employees get started with saving.

The trial will explore employee financial resilience and different 'nudges' to encourage employees to get started with saving.

Working with members of Wagestream’s existing employer base, the trial will explore two approaches designed to support employees to start saving on payday.

Through an ‘autosave’ approach, employees will automatically start saving at a default rate on payday if they do not opt out or change the saving amount.

The trial will also examine the impact of an ‘active choice’ approach which involves an in-app prompt asking employees whether or not they want to save.

Both approaches preserve individual choice and are designed to overcome behavioural barriers to saving seen in the more common opt-in approach to payroll saving.

Emma Stockdale, research trials manager at Nest Insight, said: “This new collaboration with Wagestream will see us address important outstanding research questions, such as how autosave works in different employer settings and with a different touchpoint, in the form of a financial wellbeing platform.”

Over the course of the next two years, research will be conducted to assess participation rates, savings behaviours and the impact on employee financial wellbeing.

Emily Trant, head of impact & inclusion at Wagestream, said: "Around a third of workers saving with Wagestream are building up savings for the first time in their life - but we know there's still more we can do. By collaborating with researchers at Nest Insight and Harvard, we're proud to be building evidence around what works to support employees."

The trial seeks to strengthen the financial security of low and moderate-income earners by increasing their accessible savings through automation and is partially funded by the BlackRock Foundation’s Emergency Savings Initiative. In 2022, BlackRock renewed its commitment to supporting emergency savings research and established a new three-year strategic partnership with Nest Insight.

• Nest Insight is a public-benefit research and innovation centre. Wagestream is a financial wellbeing app founded with charities, designed for frontline workers and built around their pay.