Whether employers realize it or not, they have employees who are distracted at work due to stress about their personal finances. According to a recent report from the Personal Finance Employee Education Fund, one in four workers suffer from serious financial distress. Of those 30 million workers, 30 to 80{21ff4f36868fa9830ff11f4d939007e345b08a69fa4833b8bf3a08fd16b9151c} of them spend time at work worrying about their stressful personal financial situations and dealing with financial issues instead of working.
Not only are those stressors having a negative impact on employees, but it’s affecting employers, too. These dire statistics are leaving many employers wondering how they can ensure their workers leave their worries behind and focus on workplace responsibilities instead. The good news? Many employers are finding financial education in the workplace may be the solution to this escalating epidemic in the American workplace.
Even workers who aren’t stressed about their personal financial situations can benefit from financial education in the workplace that helps them teach their children and grandchildren about money matters. Additionally, these programs help employers take the necessary steps to reduce employees’ financial stress and improve the productivity amongst those suffering from financial distress.
By simply providing basic financial literacy education to all employees, productivity levels increase, along with employee satisfaction. Financial literacy education optimizes employee performance across the board, regardless of each employee’s current financial situation. This type of workplace education also pairs well with other conventional company-supplied benefits, such as health insurance and 401(k) plan matching.
However, while financial literacy education in the workplace is gaining popularity, not all employers fully understand which financial literacy education programs are most beneficial for their employees. There are two very compelling reasons why a financial education program that focuses on helping your employees better educate their children and grandchildren on money matters.
By giving your employees the tools and lessons they need to help their children and grandchildren make sound financial decisions, you’ll help them prepare their heirs for the enormous transfer of wealth currently taking place. The baby boomer generation is transferring $41 trillion in assets to their Gen X and millennial children, according to research from the Boston College Social Welfare Research Institute. Without the proper financial literacy, your employee’s children and grandchildren are at risk for being painfully unprepared to maturely manage a large lump sum of money that will appear in their lives at some point.
