Why Financial Wellness Is Now an Employee Experience Issue

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Monique: The paycheck comes in, the bills go out, and for many workplaces, financial stress doesn't stay at home. It stays at the office for employees. Rising costs make it harder to stay financially stable. For employers, those same pressures create tough decisions about pay benefits and how much support is realistic with limited resources.

Welcome to Honest HR, where we turn real issues facing today's HR departments into honest conversations with actionable insights. I'm Monique Akanbi. Let's get honest.

Recent SHRM research shows financial stress is a top concern for workers and economic pressure remains a key challenge for HR leaders and CHROs planning ahead. So today we're talking about how the financial wellness conversation has changed. How financial stress affects both employee outcomes and employer capacity, and what smarter cost conscious approaches can look like.

Joining us is Tyler Horn, head of Planning at Origin, an all in one financial budgeting platform. Welcome to Honest HR Tyler.

Tyler Horn: Awesome. Thank you so much for having me. Very excited to be here.

Monique: I am excited to have you and really excited to talk about this topic. So I am gonna jump right in. I have a few questions to cover. I'm really interested to hear what you have to share with our audience.

So SHRM's 2026 State of the Workplace Report consistently shows financial stress as a top concern for workers. How has that stress actually showing up day to day at work?

Tyler Horn: Yeah, that's a great question. And the way I think about it is stress finds a way to creep into really every part of our lives. It fills in the blank space in between meetings and emails and things like that.

So whether it's someone checking their bank balance on their way to a big sales meeting or thinking about their loan, they're applying for their credit card balance statement after the holidays as they're getting ready to plan a maybe it's a kickoff of some kind for this year, and that stress is gonna have compounding effects on our decision making and our ability to interact with others. Not just at home, but at the workplace where we actually do spend a majority of our time throughout the week.

Monique: Yeah. I can definitely see that even if I think about just my personal life and all the notifications I get, right, and then managing a household, right? It's always top of mind. So I can definitely see how that kind of shows up throughout work.

So the conversation around financial wellness has changed quickly in just a few years, shaped by rising costs and evolving employee expectations. How is this discussion today different from what it looked like maybe three to four years ago?

Tyler Horn: Yeah. So three or four years ago, financial wellness benefits as a whole were a nice to have. It was like, well, this is good, this is good. This is like, you know, we'll give this to our employees and you know, they can have this, they can use it if they want to.

Over the last four years or so, as things have gotten exponentially more expensive, interest rates have remained high. So that idea, that career progression of how I may be able to afford to buy a home one day or these other decisions and financial decisions that are big milestones for our lives are getting pushed further and further back on that timeline.

And so the question becomes, well, how do I do these things? How do I plan to buy a house? How do I plan for my kids' college? These questions that lead to higher stress levels that then impact our ability to do our jobs.

And that's where financial wellness as a benefit, especially a place like origin. It has become more prevalent, becomes more of a need to have because our whole job, our whole idea is that we want to reduce that stress, that you can focus on the things that are most important to you. I know that I don't want to have to worry about my budget, like I don't have to worry about if my kids are gonna be okay, like those are things I don't want to worry about.

We want to find a way to provide that peace of mind to as many people as possible. And it comes through transparency and getting the tool set and the advice that will help reduce that stress and provide that clarity.

Monique: Yeah. I've seen that become more and more relevant in workplaces today, just kind of around the discussions around financial wellness. And if you think about it, if I think back to even maybe the last ten years in traditional wellness programs, you really did not see that emphasis on financial wellness. And you see that now.

I mean, to your point, you know, being able to really not have to, that's one less thing I have to worry about as an employee and to be able to have those tools that my employer provides me to be able to not worry about that allows me to really show up and be present in the workplace.

So why should HR leaders view financial wellness as an employee experience issue? Not just as benefit or benefits or compensation conversation.

Tyler Horn: Yeah, that's kind of like a, there's two sides to that, right? So the first side is from like quality of work perspective. If I can reduce the outside stress of my employees, it will likely lead to higher productivity. That's a very straightforward, non-human way to look at it, but it is true.

If I can reduce the outside noise, reduce outside stressors, things that will take away from my employees to bring their best selves to work, then I will likely get higher productivity and my company and my organization, which leads to higher revenue. Everyone's happy. And that's part of it.

Another side of it is just the human element of like, I don't, it's idealistic. I get it. But to like, I want to help people. We want to help people. We want to help them not feel stressed. Like that is a bad thing. I don't want that for them.

There's a level of empathy and even sympathy that I have for people who are going through these situations. I've gone through the high credit card debt. I've gone through the two kids in day care and it's a bajillion dollars a month, an extra mortgage payment. Like I understand that and it stinks and it's not fun.

And if I can help somebody provide clarity of how to not feel those stress of how to plan around those things, then I feel like I'm making the world a better place. Again, super idealistic. I totally get it. But that's the kind of the two sides of why HR leaders should maybe think about having that like financial wellness benefit, at least to higher productivity.

And financial stress is one of the leading causes of stress. It has health effects on us. 'Cause we know that high stress levels lead to more health conditions. So finding a way to mitigate that stress, to resolve it in some way is going to lead to just better outcomes across the board.

Monique: Yeah. It makes me think about treating the whole employee, right? So rather than just, you know, that traditional benefit or, you know, conversation, really thinking about the whole employee beyond, you know, the workplace as well. So, thanks for sharing that.

Workplace leaders are under pressure. Right. And in SHRM's, CHRO priorities and perspectives report, economic and financial challenges consistently rank among top organizational concerns. How do these pressures affect decision making around financial wellness program?

Tyler Horn: Yeah, absolutely. And so a big part, something I think about all the time is, and I understand from like the HR teams and their, you know, the CFO's perspective is, okay, what's the ROI on this, right? And that's the kind of the dollars and cents of it all.

And I'm a big believer that there is a quantified ROI. It's like if I can reduce the amount of time that employees are calling out sick or taking time off, or being able to focus on the work at hand, that will lead to higher productivity, higher revenue.

And it becomes an investment per se, because I'm able to again, help mitigate one of life's biggest stressors, which is our finances. And stress, again, affects health. It affects our decision making, it affects all, has all these negative consequences.

And so finding ways, whether it's a financial wellness benefit, a mental health benefit, though it's the same type of compounding interest you get there, of helping mitigate that stress, which leads to higher productivity, happier employees, less turnover, and those can start to show up in a P and L statement.

Monique: Got it. So I see the connection in terms of like, you know, the reason why it's really important to be able to provide these programs to your employees.

With supporting a CHRO focused on long-term organizational health, how can HR professionals use workforce insights to elevate the conversation around financial wellness? From a benefit to a strategic capability.

Tyler Horn: It's about staying engaged and committed long term, right? Because at the end of the day, while I love my job and I love my employer, and I love my boss and I love my coworkers, what's most important to me is my family. And when my company enables me to take care of them and to prioritize them, it gives me further commitment to my company as well. So it's similar in that regard.

If we're providing a benefit that I know our employees are gonna take advantage of, that they're going to love, that they're going to use, it's gonna help reduce their stress, it's gonna enable them to accomplish the things that are most important to them outside of spreadsheets and sales calls and things like that. It's gonna have further commitment to our organization, which then reduces turnover.

And we all know that turnover is incredibly costly. It prevents us from accomplishing goals and we lose good people because of it. And so we're able to align those two things, benefits that actually help our employees accomplish the things that are most important to them that is gonna reciprocate back to the organization.

Monique: Yeah. What do you think is the biggest misconception about what it takes to support employee financial wellness?

Tyler Horn: Yeah, it's more than just a 401(k) webinar. It's more than just having them come and tell you what a traditional 401(k) is versus a Roth 401(k).

As we have surveyed the employees that we work with, what we find is that the most common questions aren't your traditional 401(k) type of questions. It's more around the lines of how can I retire? Like I get how a 401(k) works, but how do I like logistically and literally retire? How do I pay for my kids' college? How do I reduce my stress? How do I build a budget?

And so it's these softer skills involved with financial wellness outside of just the cookie cutter presentations about what a retirement plan is. It's the actual application of financial planning principles that make my life better. And so that's the biggest misconception is you can't just tape together a 401(k) webinar and think that that's going to help your employees reduce that financial burden.

Monique: Yeah. I really like the focus around the financial wellness and it actually makes me think about even in school, right? If we take it down to even being like in high school. 'Cause I think about we assume when our employees come to work that they have some basis around, you know, or education around financial wellness and financial planning. But the reality of that isn't. And so, to your point, you know, I think it's really important for employers to really be able to support employee financial wellness from that aspect and thinking long term to, you know, back to your point, around longevity.

Tyler Horn: Absolutely. And, you know, you think about it, it's like, I feel like my grandparents used to say, I wish they taught me this in school. And then my mom said that, and then I find myself saying that. So at some point it's like, we need to take the, the burden falls on us to educate our children on these financial matters.

And that's something we do webinars all the time with different companies about that. Okay. Raising financially independent children. How do you do that? You can start super early, you know, like the lemonade stand, right? And then it's a shared debit card to fill up your gas tank and when you get, when you finally get a car in high school, and then it's responsibly student loans, how those work.

It's about passing on that knowledge and eventually hopefully schools will catch up and start telling us how to maybe balance a checkbook and things like that. But until then, the responsibility does fall on us. And so for those who may not have had the luxury to gain that financial literacy, whether through their job or their parents or whoever it is. Providing your employees with that opportunity to develop that financial literacy so that they then can pass it on to that next generation is a huge benefit as well.

Monique: Yeah, exactly. And then being able to pass it to your point, pass it on to their family. Well continue the conversation in just a few moments. Stay with us.

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Monique: So supporting financial wellness doesn't have to mean burning out HR teams or breaking the budget. How does improving financial resilience translate into measurable outcomes like productivity, retention, or reduced absenteeism?

Tyler Horn: Oh gosh, I love that question. And I love the way it's positioned, financial resiliency because like life is going to happen. It's, there's nothing you can do about it. Like, I wish that I could just plan out my life and everything's gonna go super swell and just gonna be, it's gonna be great. Nothing ever bad's gonna happen. That's just not the truth.

You're gonna get the flat tire. You're going to have the car battery died. That happened to me before. We went on vacation last week over the holidays. Literally went to drop my dog off. Car battery died. I'm stranded there. I'm calling AAA. They can't fix it. Like those things are gonna happen.

And so developing that financial resiliency comes with knowledge. So knowing what to do and also knowing that you're gonna be okay. We talk about emergency funds all the time. It's not the most fun financial planning topic to talk about. It's just not, no one wants to hear about saving money to not use or to maybe use one day if I need it, versus like, investments and crypto and buying a house and things like that.

But it is, you know, developing those strong financial foundations of having an emergency fund, understanding how much you're spending on a monthly basis, those building blocks of a strong financial plan help build that resiliency. So that when financial crises arise, 'cause they inevitably do, you're able to handle 'em.

And it doesn't mean that you are able to just handle them financially, but you're able to handle them psychologically. Like you have that belief that everything's going to be okay because you established these checks and balances to ensure that you would be okay. That if something were to arise, you can afford it, you don't have to pay it all right, now you have a plan of what you're going to do.

And so that preparation and that knowledge comes not naturally, but just through education and through understanding. And for, like I said earlier, a lot of us were not given a lot of financial literacy growing up. It was something we have to learn from, you know, the school of hard knocks per se. But once you have that, you can then begin to establish that foundation and build that resiliency over time.

Monique: Yeah. And then how does that then translate to productivity and retention in the workplace?

Tyler Horn: Yeah, so again. If I am focused on an outside stressor, right? Something that is not related to work that I deem is more important than my work is going to affect that work, right?

I have helmets on the wall. I played football. It's football season. As we wrap it up, you just say, you know, you say one play at a time. Just, you know, don't worry about the last play. Block out the outside noise. They say that because if I'm thinking about something else, if I'm thinking about the previous play where I gave up a sack or did something bad, it's gonna negatively affect me on the next play that I have to do well on.

It's the same thing in everyday life, right? If I allow, you know. Did something poorly from a financial standpoint or I'm in a bad situation. Financially, it's going to affect my ability to put my focus on what I need to get done in order to have that successful life.

And so it's completely natural to let those outside stressors influence us. But as you know, an HR organization has the ability to provide a benefit that can help mitigate that. It's going to lead to higher productivity. It just, from my perspective, it's a very logical decision of if I can remove outside stressors, if I can help my employees reduce those outside stressors, they can focus on their job, they can put a hundred % focus on that, which will lead to higher productivity.

Monique: Yeah. And it also shows that makes me think about showing the investment into the individual as well. So, yeah. So Tyler, what are some cost neutral or cost conscious strategies HR teams can implement that still have real impact?

Tyler Horn: Yeah, so I love that because one thing we talk about at Origin a lot when we're working with employers is health care costs, right? A lot of times employees choose a health care plan because it sounds good, I guess, right? They see the deductible, like, oh, that deductible's high. Like, I think I'll go with that one, or that premium's the lowest. I'll go with that one without truly understanding which health care plan is the right one for them.

Like, for example. You know, thinking about a high deductible health care plan for a lot of people who don't use their health care very often, they're relatively healthy. Maybe they don't have dependents who you can have a ear infection every other week. That high deductible health care plan makes a ton of sense for them. Well, that's a lower premium.

And if that organization pays a percentage of that premium, well, if they were to switch from a higher premium plan to that one, you just saved money. Like the company money, right? Because you're no longer having to foot the bill for a health care plan that that employee didn't necessarily need.

And so it's not about, again, finding employees and making sure they choose the lowest premium option, but it's about educating them on which plan makes the most sense for them? Using tools to understand, okay, how often do I use my health care? Do I have any preexisting conditions or specialty prescriptions that I need to use? And then putting them in the appropriate plan or helping them choose that one.

And what we have found is a lot of times that actually reduces the organization's overall costs because employees are able to choose the health care plan that makes the most sense for them, especially if they're going to max out their HSA contributions to add a tax benefit of that as well.

And so, again, that's a very like not 401(k) related or budgeting related financial wellness exercise that many people don't think about at all.

Monique: Yeah, I'm just sitting here thinking, and I'm listening to you talk and I'm like, make connecting the dots right around like, well, how does my benefits, health benefits connect to financial? And you're absolutely right, right? What I'm gonna pay out of pocket in terms of whatever my premiums are. Or deductibles or copays are then how that also translates to the cost, maybe that my employer is, you know, covering as well. So I see I connect the dot, so thank you for using that example. Actually, of course, you know, outside of the traditional, you know, financial examples that you could have used.

Tyler Horn: And that's in financial planning. That's, you know, when our financial planners meet with employees, they look at the whole thing, right? We look, yeah, we look at your budget, we look at your investments, but what are your, what are the benefits that are offered to you through your employer?

Like. Know what, what life insurance multiple makes the most sense for you. Should you do the buy up disability, right? To go from sixty to sixty-six % in the, you know, sixty-six and a third % or whatever it is. Do you have the commuter benefit? You should, you take advantage of that.

All these different things that make up, that affect us in some way, shape or form financially, that may not seem like a big deal, but those benefits, those things add up all the time. And that's what we always talk about. Are you taking advantage of your total compensation, not just your OTE, not just the sales commissions or the 401(k), but everything your employer offers, because those things add up and what you find it ends up adding about fifteen to twenty thousand dollars in your, to your total compensation that you may not have appreciated when you're evaluating whether you should stay or leave.

Monique: Yeah, and I mean, those are things that we don't think of, you know, so sometimes the opportunity isn't adding more, it's using what's already there more effectively. So how can HR rethink total rewards to better support financial wellness without constantly adding new programs?

Tyler Horn: Yeah, and so I guess a lot of times it depends on the financial benefit you have. Again, the plug for origin is that we have an app for employees to use that We also have access to financial planners. So you get both.

Like there, there are some people who just inherently do not want to meet with a financial planner. They don't wanna meet with a person. And that could be because they're more of the DIY side, or some, and this is just through my experience working with clients in the past. They just don't have the necessary amount of vulnerability or to meet with somebody to talk about their personal finances.

Yeah, so you know, how do you capture your entire workforce if you know that a good chunk of them may not meet with a person, they don't want to talk to someone about their finances, it's taboo to them. They don't wanna talk about it, but they still want that clarity. What's in finding and making sure they're taking advantage of the benefits that are there.

So if you have a financial wellness benefit, maybe it's not origin, it's someone else, you know, is it just financial planners or do they have a budgeting tool of some kind. Do they have a learning center that allow you could point your employees to, are you working with them to maybe put on different webinars?

That's something we do as well, where, you know, it's not just a 401(k) webinar, but it's during mental health month. I think it's like, May we do a bunch of mental health and wellness webinars about how we can reduce our stressors, our financial stress. What are some things that I can provide to my employees outside of just a financial planner that can really capture more of your employee base so you have a higher utilization rate than just some people who may wanna meet with a planner.

Monique: Yeah, I love that. You know, kind of even thinking about mental health, right? So we think, oh, we offer a mental health benefit. Is there a way we can integrate some kind of financial wellness or financial literacy in that? Because it does, you know, impact, and I think you talked about it a little earlier, just kind of around. Top stressor is finances, right? And so I always say more money, more problems, more money, more problems. Oh yeah, absolutely. But the reality of it is, is true, you know, at the core, of everything finances is connected to it. Like find, you can find a hundred.

Tyler Horn: A hundred %. A hundred %. We say that all the time. Is that like it or not? Money is a part of every single decision that you make. Everything you do, money's involved. And it's unfortunate, but that is life. And so the sooner we can accept that, the sooner we can accept that money is involved with anything that we want to do, it allows us then to understand what our options are. What can we do? How can I make the most of the situation?

And it, you're right, I mean. Financial stress is what the number one financial, I guess, worries is the number one cause of divorce. Right. People are like, fight, fight over money. And it's be, it's not because, hey, we have too much money. It's because we don't, we don't know how to, what decisions we need to make or how to combine our finances, our work together as a team, to live a happy life. And that's unfortunate, but it is just the truth.

Monique: Yeah, that's life. So in thinking about, or speaking of shifting mindsets, right? So as we zoom out, out from programs and tactics, mindset often drives everything else. When employers think about financial wellness today, what mindset do you see holding organizations back and what needs to replace it?

Tyler Horn: Yeah, so the biggest thing is just, you know, it's having a growth mindset across all fronts, right? It's not just, oh, like I have a growth mindset personally, so I know I can accomplish great things. It's taking that idea and applying it to your benefits, you know, how can I make the most of this benefit? It's not just a bandaid, it's not just there to check a box, but how can I ensure that our employees are utilizing this benefit to better themselves and finding ways to utilize that benefit to help your employees as a whole.

So I think it all starts with having that growth mindset and applying it to the benefits that you have to ensure you're getting the most out of them.

Monique: Yeah. Tyler, thank you so much. I mean, this was very helpful even for me, right? Even in shifting my mindset and thinking about how everything impacts, you know, finances, right? But then also the importance for employers. I'm an HR to support their employees as it relates to really building financial resilience. And then also being prepared, you know, for when those unexpected events occur, so that way their employees can show up and be productive and really not think about kind of the, you know, the external factors that may be impacting them in the workplace. So thank you so much for sharing your insights with us.

Tyler Horn: Awesome. No, thank you for having me. I love talking about it. Happy to do this anytime.

Monique: Absolutely. So that's gonna do it for this week's episode of Honest HR. We'll catch you next time. Hello, friends. We hope this week's episode gave you the candid tips and insights you need to keep growing and thriving in your career.

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