According to a white paper released by Purchasing Power, nearly 50% of full-time American workers say they worry about personal finances during work hours.

In the survey titled, “Financial Wellness: The Addressing the “9 to 5″ Impact of 24/7 Financial Stress“, those who are employed full-time were asked how their finances affect them at work in terms of worrying and spending time dealing with personal financial issues. 

The answers suggest that financial concerns can impact their focus and productivity at work:

• 44 % of full-time employees indicate they worry about their personal finances during work hours.
• 29 % of full-time workers said they spend time dealing with their personal finances during working hours.
• 46 % of full-time employees who spend time at work dealing with personal finances say that on average they spend 2-3 hours per week at work dealing with personal finances.

This is a valuable insight for employers who are looking to improve engagement and productivity in the workplace.

With the UK experiencing a slower recovery and wages down significantly against the cost of living, we can only assume that a similar, if not higher, figure is true in the UK.

Remove the distraction of financial worries through employee benefits

Employers should already be aware of how employee benefits help keep employees motivated and engaged and therefore helps the business meet its goals.  By adding financial wellness benefits into your employee benefits package you can help ease your employee’s financial worries which means they’re spending less time worrying or dealing with personal financial matters during working hours.

Education

There’s several different ways to address your employees’ financial well-being. Some employers are now offering financial education and financial wellness programmes at work in an attempt to help employees change their spending patterns and behaviours and improve their financial literacy. These programmes include on-site seminars about money management and financial planning.

Flexible Discounts

Other benefits that are being added include voucher purchase programmes, which enable employees to buy vouchers for household shopping at a discounted rate through a monthly payroll deduction. These flexible benefits promote disciplined purchasing through manageable payments and pre-set spending limits and controls to prevent over-spending.

Financial Planning

Some companies are also working with Independent Financial Advisors (IFA) to help employees plan for the future. They give employees a free, no commitment on-site meeting with a reputable IFA to discuss financial matters such as retirement or saving for their children’s education.

Cashback cards are one of the best ways to support your staff

Offering a cashback card to all your staff is one of the best ways to ease the pressure on your employees’ family finances.

Cashback cards, such as MySpree, reduce the financial worries of employees by helping them to budget and not overspend. And by earning cashback on their everyday spend they can make their salaries stretch further. When the Financial Wellness survey reports that 28% of employees surveyed have trouble meeting monthly household expenses even just small amounts of cashback can make a considerable difference.

Watch productivity rise

Many employers are now starting to realise that the financial well-being of their employees affects both their health and their productivity. These employers are starting to adopt financial wellness benefits that help employees ease their financial stress and therefore become more productive at work, which ultimately improves the company’s bottom line.