Employers Lean on Financial Wellness Benefits as Worker Stress Climbs

Salt Lake City-based software company O.C. Tanner has a host of financial wellness benefits in place, including an employee assistance fund and Smart Dollar, a program that gives employees access to one-to-one coaching, educational content, and more.

Those benefits are always important for the company’s roughly 1,600 employees, said Jackie Stinnett, vice president of people and great work at O.C. Tanner. But amid persistent inflation and rising living costs, company leaders are placing renewed emphasis on helping employees navigate mounting financial pressures.

“It’s especially important in times like today, where inflation and cost-of-living are straining households even more and pushing them into survival mode,” she said.

Right now, Stinnett said, HR leaders at O.C. Tanner are increasing communication efforts around the company’s financial wellness offerings and related mental health support. 

“When employers provide financial wellness benefits, it helps create a sense of security and stability,” she explained. “If [employees] feel supported in that way, it reduces anxiety and builds a strong relationship of trust with their organization, allowing them to show up fully at work and in their personal lives.”

O.C. Tanner isn’t alone in its strategy: Employers are increasingly leaning on financial benefits as a way to address employees’ overwhelming financial stress and reduce the mental toll tied to financial strain.

“Helping their workforce address these challenges are top of mind for so many employers,” said Craig Gabel, vice president, retirement plan consulting, at benefits and HR consulting firm OneDigital Financial Services in Medina, Ohio.

There’s good reason: 68% of employees experienced at least some financial stress in the past year, and 45% say financial concerns increased their mental stress, according to recent data from Prudential Financial. 

Article: Employee Financial Confidence Drops to Lowest Level in Years

Impact of Financial Stress

Employers’ growing focus on financial wellness comes as workers continue to face higher everyday expenses, rising healthcare costs, and broader economic uncertainty.

“The pressures are very real, not just headlines or responses to surveys, and they impact more people than most think, not just lower-income earners,” Gabel said.

Industry experts say the connection between financial health and mental well-being is becoming harder for employers to ignore. 

“For most, the effects of financial stress on mental health are silent to employers, co-workers or even family. This leads to things like burnout, disengagement or turnover impacting employers,” Gabel said, adding that chronic stress can also create long-term health and relationship challenges for workers personally.

Those challenges aren’t just impacting employees themselves, but how they show up at work. 

“What many people don’t consider is that financial stress doesn’t just stay at home, it follows people right to their desk,” Stinnett said. “They aren’t focused on meeting a deadline for a project. Their attention is focused on getting meals on the table or wondering how to pay their bills that month. That constant stress adds to mental burdens and sends employees into survival mode.”

Michael Estep, president of Prudential Group Insurance in Newark, N.J., agreed. 

“Financial strain and mental stress are both affecting employees’ ability to focus, plan for the future, and feel confident in their overall stability,” he said. “In some cases, employees are making short-term decisions, such as delaying care or reducing savings, that can create longer-term challenges for both their financial security and their well-being.”

Specialty Credential: Total Rewards

Increasing Benefits Communication

For many employers, the key is to communicate about the financial — and mental health — benefits they have in place. 

O.C. Tanner’s HR team, Stinnett said, “is putting a larger focus on promoting financial wellness through frequent internal communications — whether it’s in company newsletters, in person as we visit teams to connect, answer questions and share info, or in more casual all-team email blasts.”

The company is also encouraging managers to “address how financial stressors may be impacting their team’s mental health, and arming them with the information to share those resources without taking on too much mental burden themselves,” she said.

Stinnett encouraged other HR leaders to do the same, noting that just 40% of employees say their organizations communicate their workplace benefits effectively. 

“What’s the point of having those benefits if the people they’re intended to help aren’t using them?” she said. “Now’s the time to show up for employees by making sure they know what resources are available to them.” 

Another important thing to keep in mind, Stinnett said, is that benefits strategies — and the way employers communicate them — need to evolve alongside employees’ changing needs.

“Right now it’s finances, but several years ago it was the pandemic and health and safety,” she said. “The tactics may differ, but the core idea is the same: Show up for your employees and give them the support they need to thrive.”

Supporting Employees — and Employers

Experts say those efforts can benefit organizations as much as workers. 

“When employers invest in employees’ financial well-being and make benefits easier to understand and use, they can help reduce stress at its source,” Estep said. “That can have a meaningful impact on employees, from improving focus and confidence to helping them make better long-term decisions about their health and finances.”

Gabel agreed.

Helping address employees’ financial stress “can create a safe place for their employees, showing they care about them as a person and over time create a by-product of an engaged and committed workforce that impacts the growth of their organization,” he said. “Employers that prioritize financial, mental and physical health for their employees, and do so in a meaningful way set themselves apart as employers of choice.”