No matter how much job satisfaction and enjoyment an employee receives from their role within your company, the bottom line is that their primary reason for doing the work is the remuneration they receive. Little wonder then that when individuals are dealing with personal financial problems, it can have a negative impact on their job performance.
Knowing the right way to deal with such situations can greatly improve the chances of a positive outcome for both employer and employee alike.
Understand the issue
Financial stress is not necessarily related to how much an employee earns. A worker on $30,000 may have enough left over at the end of each month to have a healthy savings balance, while another earning five times as much could be on the edge of an abyss.
A 2017 PwC study into the financial wellness of employees found that more than half of all Americans report being stressed about their finances and that the figure for Millennials is even higher. What matters is how well an individual is able to manage a sudden, unexpected bill, such as a medical emergency. For those employees living in constant fear, the quality of their work is bound to suffer. Financial problems can be crippling to workplace performance.
Check your reimbursement policy
If your employees are required to use their own credit cards for travel and other work-related expenses, you may be making their financial lives more difficult, especially the employees must wait for such money to be reimbursed. If you can issue those who require this sort of flexibility with company credit cards not only will you ease their financial burden, but you will also ensure you always have a direct record of money spent in relation to your business.
Consider occasional home working
Only a few employers truly take the cost of their employees’ journey to work into consideration. However, whether members of your team drive, take a bus or a subway train to get to work, the cost of doing so can quickly add up. Allowing some employees to work from home every now and then can cut their costs and boost their productivity.
Bring in outside assistance
Even if you have qualified counselors within your HR department and guarantee anonymity, some employees may feel they are unable to disclose the true nature of their financial problems to others in the same company through concerns that the information may leak out. In such situations, employing the services of an outside agency to provide your employee assistance program may offer a superior solution.
Although there are a range of services available, not all are equal. The best employee assistance program will offer a number of benefits to those members of your team dealing with financial difficulties. The ESI Group, for example, offers professional credit counseling, which can help your employees to develop a budget and restructure their debts so that payments become affordable.
Individuals also have the opportunity to improve their level of financial education through a series of online courses and quizzes to ensure they have the knowledge they need to avoid any possibility of encountering money difficulties in the future.
