Personal finances hurting employees’ productivity: How to stop it

There’s a factor you might not be considering that’s impacting more than 85% of your people’s productivity and hurting your bottom line right now. It’s employees’ worries about their own personal finances.

Over half of employees surveyed by SoFi at Work and Workplace Intelligence said that they were more stressed out about their personal finances now than ever before. In fact, they’re even more stressed than they were at the height of the pandemic.

Plus, three-quarters of those surveyed said they’re currently facing at least one source of significant financial stress.

And they think their employers are turning a blind eye to their worries. Forty-five percent of those surveyed said their companies aren’t concerned with addressing their financial stressors.

Impact of worrying about personal finances

But their fears about their personal finances are affecting their performance. Along with hurting productivity, worrying abut personal finances is impacting employees’ ability to focus (84%) and their job satisfaction and engagement at work (84%).

For 86% of those surveyed, it’s also affecting their desire to keep working for their employers entirely.

Even if they stay, they’re costing you big bucks. Employees surveyed are spending more than nine hours a week dealing with their personal finances on the clock. That’s nearly 25% of the average workweek.

What companies can do

Helping your people with their personal finances may not be on your radar. However, 84% of those surveyed think their companies should have some responsibility for their financial well-being.

Most aren’t asking for higher salaries or bonuses. The biggest things they want from their employers: a 401(k) match program (64%), an emergency savings fund benefit (64%), and education about budgeting and personal finance (62%).

You may want to look into adding these features on to your benefits package for next year.

Not only could this improve retention and put your people’s minds at ease, it can also help them get their productivity back on target. Talk to your providers to see if they have a cost-effective way to offer these benefits.

Nonconventional benefits

Per the survey, there’s also a growing interest from employees in receiving benefits such as the ability to be paid in cryptocurrency (36%) or receive performance rewards as NFTs (42%).

You’ll want to proceed with caution here, though. These investments haven’t yet proven to be stable. Federal agencies, including the Dept. of Labor, are currently advising against the use of cryptocurrency in certain areas, such as retirement plans.