How Financial Wellness Helps Lower Employee Stress

According to the American Psychological Association, 87% of employees say money is the most common source of stress. Additionally, research shows that employees are stressed about their personal finances across all income levels and generations.

What is the biggest cause of this financial stress? 54% of Millennials, 48% of Gen X, and 38% of Baby Boomers say their financial stress is caused by day to day and monthly expenses.

Financial stress affects your business through distracted employees that are less focused at work lowering their productivity. 46% of employees say they spend at least 3 hours a week dealing with their personal finances at work. Over a year, that’s 150 hours of lost productivity per employee!

To help your employees reduce their financial stress and get in a better financial position, consider offering financial wellness to your employees. A financial wellness program aims to improve financial health, reduce stress, and improve employees’ overall well-being.  A financial wellness program supplies them with the tools, information, and support they need to improve their finances.

A good foundation to building a financial wellness program is to start with the basics: Budgeting & Planning for Emergencies; Tackling Debt; and Relationships & Money. When employees understand these topics, they’ll be ready to learn about retirement and other long term financial goals.

Financial wellness workshops and seminars should be offered by unbiased financial professionals that do not sell insurance or investments. Why? Because they are not trying to sell your employees additional financial products such as additional loans, investments, and insurance and are only focused on serving your employees and your company.

When employees have financial wellness education, it leads to lower stress levels. You’ll have more engaged, more productive employees and that leads to an increased bottom line for employers.