productivity Archives

Employee Financial Wellness Statistics 2019

by LizStevens | Sep 9, 2019 | Blog

Employee financial wellness statistics 2019. New research looks at the spillover effect financial stress has on employee productivity.

Greetings,

New research by Morgan Stanley highlights the impact financial wellness has on employee productivity.

Nearly four in five employees (78 percent) with high financial stress say that they are distracted by financial stress at work and it’s not just workers with lower incomes. More than half of employees with household incomes greater than $100,000 say debt and unexpected expenses are still sources of stress. More than 40 percent of them stress about having inadequate savings.

The statistics on how employee stress impacts productivity are important, but the most surprising finding was the demand for financial wellness programs and how they could increase job satisfaction and retention.

Employee Financial Wellness Statistics 2019

Here are the three most startling statistics about the financial stress employees experience:

50 percent of employees spend more than they earn each month.
37 percent of workers say they have more debt than they can manage.
41 percent of them say they don’t have enough savings to cover three months of living expenses.

According to the report, “Debt, unexpected expenses and inadequate savings are among the most significant sources of financial stress for employees.”

“While long-term savings and planning are the most often-cited needs, employees also need help with short-term goals like budgeting, managing debt and emergency savings.”

Employees Ask for Financial Wellness Benefits

Fewer than one-third of workers have access to financial wellness, but the third that do are putting them to good use. Forty to 60 percent of those with financial wellness benefits have used them in the last three years. Here are the two big takeaways from employees without access to financial wellness benefits:

60 percent of employees would be more likely to stay at a job if their employer offered financial wellness benefits.
71 percent of workers would be comfortable discussing financial matters at work with a financial professional unaffiliated with their employer.

Communication is key for any benefits offering, but more than 40 percent of employees don’t feel adequately informed about the benefits and programs their employees offer. How can employees better communicate benefits? Employees cited a clear explanation and easy access as the two most important factors that would make them more likely to use a benefit.

Financial wellness programs that give employees direct access to the personalized tools they need to dial down their financial stress, like Best Money Moves, can help organizations improve their productivity, retention and job satisfaction.

More on Financial Wellness Statistics 2019

5 Fast Financial Stress Statistics

Top 10 Employee Benefits for 2020

How Can Financial Wellness Be Improved?

5 Must-Have Benefits for Millennial Employees

How Does Financial Wellness Affect Health?

Hiring Trends to Watch in 2020

What Is Financial Literacy and Why Is It Important?

4 Big Employee Benefit Trends for Family Planning

2 Top Tips for Increasing Employee Productivity

by LizStevens | Apr 9, 2019 | Blog

2 top tips for increasing employee productivity. Recent research from Cigna highlights rising employee stress and two areas employers can target to minimize worker stress and increase productivity.

Stress was identified as a key employee health problem in the 2019 Cigna 360 Well-Being Survey. Over 80 percent of workers say they’re stressed and almost 15 percent say they’re unable to cope. The top stressors are personal finances, workloads and health concerns.

Stressed out employees don’t think employers are helping much. Close to 40 percent of workers say no stress management support is provided and only 30 percent receiving stress management support from their employer felt it was adequate.

It’s a serious issue. Studies have shown that employees lose sleep, are distracted at work, have higher rates of absenteeism and are more likely to have health problems when under stress.

Improve Work Culture for Better Employee Productivity

“There is a real need to resolve the ‘always on’ culture before it escalates further as it is negatively affecting the global workplace,” says Jason Sadler, President, Cigna International Markets.

More than 60 percent of employees work in an ‘always on’ culture where they feel the need to constantly access work emails, attend work calls or check mobile phones for work purposes. Workers report a decline in their physical health as a result of not having enough sleep and exercise.

Most employees feel that employers are not addressing wellness concerns sufficiently and often have a ‘one-size-fits-all’ mindset when it comes to stress management and workplace wellness programs.

Make Employee Wellness Programs Work

There are two specific employee populations that don’t feel like their workplace wellness program addresses their needs.

Half of the ‘sandwich generation’ (defined as those between 35-49) feel senior management doesn’t seriously support workplace wellness programs. Having to care for both aging parents and growing families is taking its toll on this generational cohort. More than half of those in the sandwich generation indicated there isn’t a workplace wellness program in place to address their needs, including but not limited to flexibility at work, enhanced company settings and special leave arrangements.

Over half of working women feel that workplace wellness programs need to better address the specific needs of each gender. They see an unmet demand for customized wellness programs that support flexible working hours, establish breakrooms where employees can relax, give the flexibility to work from home/elsewhere outside of the office, provide special paid leave and bolster job/employment security.

The best workplace wellness programs have various components so employees can choose the wellness benefits most relevant to their specific needs. Employers who prioritize stress management through effective wellness programs are likely to reclaim some of the employee productivity lost to stress by way of distraction and absenteeism.

More on Employee Productivity:

Do Flexible Work Schedules Work?

Know the Warning Signs of Employee Burnout

Help Your Employees Get More Sleep!

What Tops Financial Stress for Employees?

How to Raise Productivity and Employee Wellbeing in One Shot

Zombie Employees: Who Are They and What Do You Need to Know?

How to Support Mental Health at Work

Do Flexible Work Schedules Work?

by LizStevens | Apr 2, 2019 | Blog

Do flexible work schedules work? A new study by IWG found flex work policies are a key factor in winning the war for talent that benefits employers as much as it does employees.

It’s official, flex work is the new norm. More than 80 percent of U.S. employees would choose a job that offered a flexible work schedule over one that didn’t, according to the latest workspace survey by International Workplace Group (IWG). Nearly half of workers consider their commute to be the worst part of their day and one in five employees say they are ‘regularly late’ for work due to travel disruptions.

A flex work policy provides employees with a certain degree of flexibility in determining when and where they work. It’s an attractive perk for employees, but there’s another reason why more than 60 percent of businesses worldwide have adopted flexible work arrangements: there are benefits aplenty for employers, too.

What Do Employers Get From Offering Flexible Work Schedules?

More than 80 percent of companies that adopted flex work policies say that productivity has increased as a result. Close to 70 percent say having a flexible workspace helps them reduce organizational expenses, manage risk and consolidate their portfolios.

Flexible work arrangements could also benefit the U.S. economy. IWG cites a Regus report that estimates by 2030, the U.S. could see an economic boost of as much as $4.5 trillion annually from flex work.

How Flex Work Policies Works

Each organization has its own unique flex work policy. One-fifth of global workers describe flex work as the ability to make some decisions about working hours. A quarter of global employees equate it with being able to manage workloads. More than half of the global workforce views it as being able to choose the type of work location.

When the flex work trend began, flexible scheduling applied primarily to office workers, but that’s not the case any longer. Roughly 70 percent of manufacturers and retailers currently use some degree of flexible working to attract and retain staff.

Why Flexible Work Arrangments Are a Big Deal to Employees

Offering a flexible work option establishes a high level of trust and makes employees feel valued, something that can boost their organizational loyalty.

It reduces some of the stress employees have when scheduling complications arise. When a child is sick, a parent might be able to work from home instead of scrambling to find childcare (and then fretting over paying a premium for last-minute childcare). When an employee has a cold, they don’t have to push themselves to make it to work (where the illness would then spread). Similarly, if an employee has an ongoing health issue, flexibility at work could make it easier when scheduling doctors appointments, treatments, or procedures.

Most importantly, with a flexible work schedule, employees don’t feel stuck on the 9-5 grind they collectively gripe about.

More on Flex Work:

Are Employees Who Work From Home Happier?

What Benefits Do Employees Want Most?

Why You Need a Remote Work Strategy

How to Make Traditional Work Better for Freelancers

How Do You Handle Management Issues?

by LizStevens | Mar 18, 2019 | Blog

How do you handle management issues? Rather than report it to HR, employees often discuss a manager’s failings amongst themselves, which negatively impacts productivity and job satisfaction.

Eight in ten employees readily divulged what they believed to be their boss’ greatest weakness when prompted by researchers in a new study by VitalSmarts.

Nearly 30 percent of employees felt their manager was overwhelmed or unqualified for the position. “For some reason, our management has promoted an unqualified individual to be in a position of authority,” one employee said. “They have sent her to Green Belt training and she cannot even get her presentations in order. Everyone rolls their eyes, but no one says anything.”

While managers can speak frankly with direct reports when it comes to performance feedback, direct reports can’t do the same. As a result, employees discuss a manager’s failings amongst themselves, which negatively impacts their productivity and job satisfaction.

Issues with Management

Most frequently, employees took issue with managers who delayed decisions or didn’t respond to employees needs because they were stretched too thin.

Almost 25 percent of employees felt their manager was a poor listener or biased and unfair. One employee said their manager multi-tasked instead of listening, both during important calls and in one-on-ones. Another employee had an issue with a sexist manager, they said, “My boss dominates over female team members. He will blatantly talk over women when trying to make his point.”

Over 20 percent of employees felt their manager was distant and disconnected or disorganized and forgetful. One employee pointed out how a manager’s disconnection with the team resulted in issues with workloads and pushed employees to the brink of burnout, they said, “Because she is so disconnected to the daily workflow and details, she continually piles on extra work. We have multiple team members headed to burnout including one who has already had a medical episode brought on by work stress and tension.”

How to Handle Management Issues

Employees openly discuss issues with managers amongst one another (or with researchers like VitalSmarts), but why aren’t they bringing these issues up to HR? Employees most commonly gave five answers:

Speaking up would offend their manager (47%)
Speaking up would cause their boss to retaliate (41%)
They don’t know how to bring it up (41%)
Speaking up would hurt their career (39%)
The culture doesn’t support people who speak up (38%)

Most of the reasons employees gave for not addressing an issue with a manager point to an absence of process. Without a clear procedure for reporting issues with management, employees feel bringing attention to the issue leaves them vulnerable and puts their job at risk. Establishing a formal process for reporting an issue with a manager isn’t enough to prompt employees to address shared complaints. There needs to be a cultural change as well. When introducing a new or improved process for reporting management issues it’s important for leaders to stress that feedback is encouraged and that those who give it will be protected from retaliation.

More on Employee Management:

Is Rehiring a Former Employee a Good Idea?

How to Make Traditional Work Better for Freelancers

What’s Wrong With Wellness Program Incentives?

How to Improve Gender Diversity in the Workplace

Zombie Employees: Who Are They and What Do You Need to Know?

How Do Employees Pay for Unexpected Expenses?

by LizStevens | Jan 21, 2019 | Blog

How do employees pay for unexpected expenses? Less than half use their savings and the rest turn to credit cards, personal loans, or borrow from friends and family, increasing debt and worsening financial stress.

More than a third of U.S. employees faced an unexpected expense, like a car repair or emergency room visit, that cost $5,000 or more last year, according to a recent survey by Bankrate.

Americans are already losing sleep and spending time at work worrying about their finances (costing employers up to $2,000 annually per employee lost in productivity). If only 40 percent of workers have enough savings to cover an unexpected $1,000 expense, even less have enough to cover a $5,000 expense.

Credit Cards and Personal Loans

Without savings to turn to, 15 percent of employees finance emergency expenses with credit cards they pay off over time. It seems like a solution that’s easy enough, but interest on unpaid balances adds up quickly. In 2018, Americans paid banks $104 billion in credit card interest and fees, according to Magnify Money by LendingTree.

The 6 percent of workers who cover an unexpected expense by taking out a personal loan run the same risk of snowballing into deeper debt if they’re unable to pay off the balance before interest hits.

Budgeting and Spending

Another 14 percent of Americans reduce spending on other things to cover an emergency expense. It might prove to be harder than they anticipated. Marcus by Goldman Sachs found almost 60 percent of Americans found tracking and budgeting expenses to be more stressful than opening a new savings account or trying a new workout.

Friends and Family

Borrowing from family or friends is how 13 percent of Americans deal with an unexpected expense. Most Americans are struggling with their own financial stress, but more than 80 percent are willing to make a major financial sacrifice for adult children, according to research from Merrill Lynch. Each year, parents spend twice as much supporting their children than they do making contributions to their own retirement ($500 billion spent on adult children, $250 billion in contributions to retirement accounts).

Unsure How to Cover Unexpected Expenses

An alarming 10 percent of Americans would either figure out “something else” or don’t know what they would do if they had to deal with an unexpected expense. Almost 80 percent of employees live paycheck to paycheck. More than half of the 3 in 4 workers that say they are in debt today think they will always be in debt.

Unexpected expenses add to the high level of financial stress most employees already experience. It’s overwhelmingly clear that employees need employer support to build emergency savings and prepare for life events like homeownership, raising a family and retirement. Employers who offer financial wellness programs and encourage employees to engage with them can help employees get back on track, so an unexpected expense doesn’t sink them further into debt.