If you think your company does not need to concern itself with the financial difficulties that your employees have, you need to think again. Caring about your employees’ finances matters. Read on to find out why.
How to Help Your Employees Take Control of Their Finances
Before we look at why caring about your employees’ finances matters, and trust us, they do, let us look at how you can help your employees to take control of their finances. By actively providing your workforce with support, it will benefit them and the company. It all comes down to education. By providing things like personal finance and credit improvement workshops and access to multimedia educational materials, you can help your employees become empowered to get on top of their financial difficulties.
Your employees will have different financial concerns and problems, so it is best to equip them with knowledge about a wide range of topics, such as how to budget, how to plan to get out of debt, and how to improve credit scores. You could also provide information about how to get the lowest mortgage rate, which you can find out more about from this page. The main reason people do not plan their finances well is that they do not take the time to think about it and then plan accordingly. By equipping your employees with financial educational tools, they can start to take back control of and improve their financial situations with confidence.
Why Caring About Your Employees’ Finances Is Good for Your Company
Many studies have shown that companies that implement financial education programs increase employee engagement at work and reduce employee stress. In turn, that means higher productivity. But are your employees really stressed about their finances? The short answer is yes, many are. According to an article published by Corporate Wellness, between 15% and 20% of an average workforce has debt service ratios that are well above the recommended levels. When employees have financial troubles, of which there are now many more due to the consequences of the pandemic and lockdowns, they can suffer from debilitating stress that then causes nonengagement at work and a reduction in productivity. At the end of the day, when lots of employees are suffering from financial burdens, it not only has a devastating effect on the wellbeing of the employees. It also causes significant costs to your business. Of course, you should care that your employees are suffering, and that is why you will want to introduce things like personal finance programs, but you will also want to do so in order to maintain high productivity.
When employees are stressed about finances, it not only means their minds are not fully focused on work. It also means they are more likely to become physically ill and end up taking time off work. That will further affect your company’s productivity.
CEOs are starting to understand just how much things like financial stress affect employee engagement and productivity, which is why more and more companies are implementing things like financial wellness programs. One reason that businesses are waking up to all this is due to study after study indicating just how much businesses benefit from high levels of employee engagement. One study in the US, involving 700 mid to large companies, discovered that those with a company culture that supports employee engagement produced 17% higher sales!
Caring About Your Employees’ Finances Matters
It should now be obvious why caring about your employees’ finances matters. A substantial percentage of your workforce is sure to be experiencing serious financial distress. That stress causes non-engagement, low productivity, and health problems. So, it is beneficial for both the employees and your company to provide support in the form of financial education. You should also consider providing counseling sessions. The cost of implementing such things will be more than worth it. Your company will be more productive and profitable and your employees will feel more valued and be more confident in taking control of their financial concerns.