Financial stress is a common occurrence, and can lead to real business costs. Both of those statements have been proven, but provide little in the way of a solution. ROI, after all, is about making that investment to ensure you can save your company money and build a better workplace environment.

With that in mind, let's focus on the clear-cut benefit of improving your employees' financial health.

The first conclusion is obvious. If financial stress puts a financial and productivity strain on your business, it's imperative for that business to minimize that stress in order to avoid losing some of these resources. As long as the time and effort spent minimizing your employees' financial stress is less than the potential loss quoted in the previous section, the ROI of the entire effort should be positive.

The Financial Impact of Increasing Employee Financial Wellness

The impact to business was analyzed in a 2016 case study https://www.financialfinesse.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/2016-ROI-Special-Report.pdf observing Fortune 100 companies and their financial wellness efforts over a five-year span between 2009 and 2014. The report scaled the quality of wellness programs on a 10-point scale. Even improving from a score of 4 to a score of 5 yielded impressive results:

• Savings of up to $4,347,275 in absenteeism.
• Savings of up to $433,007 in garnishments
• Savings of up to $682,034 in flexible spending and health benefits
  
  

Naturally, increasing the score further makes these savings even more significant. Another study, https://www.napa-net.org/news-info/daily-news/financial-wellness%E2%80%99-roi-could-save-large-employers-millions using the same wellness scale, found total savings for employers of 100,000 employees when going from 4 to 5 to be $65 million, rising to an astonishing $129 million when scores increased from 4 to 6.

Of course, the numbers won't be as large in total for smaller employers. Still, nothing in these studies suggests that the general trend, significant financial savings resulting from increased emphasis on financial wellness, is true for all businesses across industries, regardless of size.

Where Do You Start?
The ROI of a strategic effort to improve your employees' financial health is significant. It ranges from clear-cut financial benefits to more subtle cultural and recruitment advantages. Of course, you can only reach these goals if you make the right choices and offer the right kinds of benefits. Some of these benefit programs might include:

• Educational programs designed to help employees manage their finances focused around common topics like retirement and health care expenses.
• Easy access to a consultant and professional contact for more personal questions that might require a more in-depth look at the situation.
• Clearly outlined guidelines and policies for anything related to your employees' finances, such as an outline of what exactly would result in a bonus or wage increase.
• A streamlined process of accessing wages as easily as possible and prevent your employees from incurring debt in the meantime.
  
  

Especially earned wage access tends to be a great tool to counteract some of the financial stress your employees are feeling. Enabling your workforce to access funds when they need them reduces the need for credit cards or other new debt, ultimately leading to many of the benefits discussed above.


It's important to start somewhere. Just as financial health and wellness is a priority for the modern workforce, it should be for employers. When the cost and intangible benefits are this significant, a conscious effort to reduce stress and maximize employee happiness can pay off in more ways than one.