Inflation has increased the price of food, housing, and healthcare. Even those making six figures are living paycheck-to-paycheck. In a recent study, 80% of U.S. employees reported at least “some level of financial stress,” with 27% experiencing “high or overwhelming” stress.* As an agency owner, addressing employee financial stress can improve your team’s lives and dramatically impact your firm’s growth.
It’s about more than salary.
Your first idea for relieving employee financial stress may be to offer higher salaries. It’s a commendable idea, one that few employees will turn down. However, this adds pressure and stress to your business. Can you afford the hit to your budget? How many more policies will you have to write to cover the expense?
Here’s another thing to consider, today’s employees are looking for more than a good salary, health benefits, and vacation days. They want financial well-being.
Why it’s time to offer financial education.
Financial stress doesn’t happen in a vacuum, only impacting individuals and their families at home.. Employees who are financially stressed impact your agency. These individuals are less productive. Research has found that employees spend just over eight hours a week at work stressing about financial issues.** How many new customer calls could your employees make in those four hours? How many current clients could they be serving? How much money could your business be losing due to your employee’s financial stress? And this assumes you have only one employee experiencing financial stress.
How to help reduce financial stress.
Now that you understand the problem of employee financial stress, here are three ways you can help,
- Educate yourself. Play this webcast, “Addressing Employee Financial Stress and Frustration,” to learn more about employee financial stress, why employees are looking to employers for financial education, and a solution that helps you build loyalty, improve productivity, sets you apart from the competition, requires no financial contribution from your business and is easy for you to activate.
- Educate your team. As a Farmers Agent, look to your Credit Union for help. Our Financial Education Program is free; it costs your agency nothing, and no agency contribution is required, so there’s no impact on your budget. We handle all the heavy lifting. There’s no admin work, we do it all, from planning and set up to running the program.
- Invite us to meet with you and your team. We’re happy to visit your agency or meet with you and your employees via Zoom. Our financial wellness team is also available to meet with your employees one-on-one. Here are just some of the topics we can cover:
- Financial foundations: The basic tenets of money management, including budgeting and building credit
- Creating financial success and how to avoid financial danger – everything from debt management to family discussions around money
- Homeownership
- Investing in your future
- Financial aspects of caregiving
- Retirement
- Small business essentials
When an individual’s financial needs are met, and they understand how their financial choices and decisions impact their lives — they improve their well-being and can bring their best selves to the job, be more productive, and help your agency thrive. Additionally, when your employees are less stressed about finances, thanks to a financial wellness program, they are more likely to stay with your agency, reducing turnover and new-employee training costs. Financial education is also a powerful differentiator, demonstrating that your agency cares about its employees and their well-being and that it is a good place to work.
Final thoughts.
It would be fantastic if everyone’s financial stress disappeared with a larger paycheck. Unfortunately, this thinking doesn’t work for most individuals because more money without financial education is only half a solution and can cause serious challenges for an agency’s future. Financial education helps reduce employee financial stress and increases productivity, retention, and profitability. Play the webcast, “Addressing Employee Financial Stress and Frustration,” for a deeper discussion on addressing employee financial stress and frustration and the value of adding financial education to your employee benefits package.
Click here to learn more about offering a financial wellness program and to set up a meeting with a member of our team today.
*Thakor, Manisha, “It’s time to prioritize employees’ financial health,” HBR.org. 2 January 2024. Accessed 25 June 2024.
** Zaki, Adam, “1 in 4 employees say financial stress lowers their productivity: report,” CFO.com. 28 February 2024. Accessed 25 June 2024. <https://www.cfo.com/news/1-in-4-employees-say-
