THREE THINGS COMPANIES WISH THEY KNEW ABOUT THEIR EMPLOYEES
By: Kimberly Greenman, Ph.D.
11/29/18
Employees, especially Millennials, are struggling with their financial stress, which prevents them from working at maximum capacity.
Sure you overhear your employees talking about their lives, but even though financial stress is a huge component, it’s not likely you’ll hear about it! However, as their employer, you can actually help without breaking the budget.
Luckily, just knowing financial stress exists for your employees is half the battle. And once you know exactly what’s stressing them out, you can contribute to fixing some of those problems. As you do, you will improve employee commitment while increasing work productivity from your team – two key factors that allow financial stress interventions to pay for themselves.
Here are three things to know about your employees that they might not even know about themselves:
Your employees’ financial stress is costing you money.
Eighty percent of employees admit personal financial concerns impact their work productivity, as highlighted in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This leads to a $250 billion “financial stress loss” in employees’ wages, as cited by a 2017 Mercer study.
With ninety percent of employees using work time to deal with personal financial issues, these wasted salary dollars add up. Specifically, Millennials spend an average of four work hours every week dealing with personal financial issues, as cited by the Workplace Benefits Report, 2017. This is time spent not doing the job you hired them for, and yet you’re paying for it.
Employees welcome quality financial wellness services when provided by their companies.
Eighty-six percent of all employees and 92% of Millennial employees surveyed will participate in financial wellness services when provided by their companies, according to the Workplace Benefits Report, 2017.
Interestingly, employees’ financial satisfaction is motivated more by a sense of financial wellness than by a higher income, which suggests adding a financial wellness service may be of greater benefit to an employee than an increased salary.
As employees increase their financial wellness, work productivity increases.
According to Forbes, 84% of companies are adding financial wellness programs to their employees’ benefit packages. As a result, companies expect to see up to a 78% increase in employee satisfaction, 70% increase in loyalty, 68% increase in engagement, and 57% increase in productivity, as cited in the Workplace Benefits Report, 2015.
But not all financial wellness services are created equal.
To be effective, services must be dynamic and individualized for each employee. Financial literacy training is not enough. What is needed is a tailored, self-paced program that meets each employee’s current financial concerns. At Financially Fit Employees, our program is designed to do exactly that. We are proven to help employees increase their financial wellness while reducing the corresponding financial stress and the money it’s costing your company.
In summary, your employees’ financial stress is costing you a share of the annual $250 billion loss in paid wages. It’s a sobering thought as an employer. Are you willing to take steps to fix it?
