Money Problems Don’t Stay at Home

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Nicole: When employees are worried about money, those concerns don't stay at home. Financial stress can influence everything from mental health and productivity to engagement, retention, and long-term career decisions. Yet despite growing awareness of the issue, many organizations are still struggling to understand what employees need most and how to provide meaningful support.

Welcome to Honest HR, where we turn the real issues facing today's HR departments into honest conversations with actionable insights. Today's episode is produced in partnership with SHRM's HR Webinars. I'm your host, Nichole Belyna.

Two experts who recently partnered together on SHRM's research report, The State of Financial Wellness: Challenges, Gaps and Opportunities, are here to help us unpack some of the issues workplaces are seeing. We're joined by Ragan Decker, director of commercial research at SHRM, and Kristen Koluch, retirement plan advisor at Raymond James, a financial advisory firm. Welcome to Honest HR.

Kristen: Thank you, Nichole.

Nicole: I have a lot of questions for you, but Ragan, if we can start with you — you've spent months analyzing responses from more than 2,300 workers and over 1,000 HR professionals. What finding surprised you the most?

Ragan: It's hard to pick just one finding because the research is full of valuable insights. But if I had to choose one, it's the disconnect between what workers are asking for and what organizations are planning to do in the future.

As a recap, we found that at least three in five workers say it's important or very important for their employer to expand financial wellness initiatives and benefits. But only 8% of organizations said they are very likely or extremely likely to expand their financial wellness initiatives in the future.

When we dig a little deeper, we found that only 25% of organizations said they're regularly adapting their financial wellness initiatives based on the changing needs of their workforce. We also found that only 23% are regularly soliciting employee feedback to inform these initiatives.

If organizations aren't asking their employees what they need or evaluating these programs, it's harder to identify opportunities and make sure you're really meeting the needs. The biggest takeaway for me is that financial wellness is clearly a priority for many workers, but many organizations are missing that opportunity. There's definitely room to better align with employee expectations and needs.

Nicole: That makes sense. Kristen, you had pointed out the state of the economy today — prices increasing and all that comes with it. And Ragan, you're a researcher by trade, so you don't know what you don't know. This is really important data. Kristen, what finding immediately resonated with you, given what you're hearing from employers and employees in the field?

Kristen: With employees, it wasn't a surprise that they're lacking financial resilience, for all the reasons we talked about, and that they need help. They're looking for support in managing their day-to-day resources, and that's something employers may not be prepared to address.

From my training and my career path, this is an opportunity — for employers, for schools, for educational institutions — around financial literacy. It's about acknowledging that your workers are coming to work with unique situations and appreciating that there might be a gap in their own level of understanding.

From the HR professional's perspective, I'm hearing in conversations this idea of point solution fatigue — there's no lack of tools and resources, but employees don't know how to navigate them. They don't know how to make decisions. In those moments that matter, whether they need a will or have to change a beneficiary, they're not sure where to go.

This connecting-the-dots and integration opportunity — I think there's agreement that a need exists. There's just some confusion or lack of clarity on how to get there.

Nicole: You brought up a really good point about educating people managers and having benefits ambassadors. Having those smaller, natural conversations — during a one-on-one or even just in passing — can help point an employee in the right direction. That's often more effective than sending someone to a benefits page with 20 different options to sort through during a difficult time.

Kristen: I couldn't agree more. Even just asking the question: How are you? You'd be amazed at what you learn from that simple question.

We found that group education channels, while necessary for communicating changes, are less actionable than one-on-one conversations. Whether it's with a trusted colleague or a professional who can help someone make that next right decision, one-on-one is key.

Nicole: Ragan, the research found that nearly three-quarters of workers experience financial stress. What does that data tell us about the scope of this challenge?

Ragan: It's a pretty striking data point. We found that nearly four in 10 workers say they experience that stress constantly, often, or always. That means financial stress is an ongoing reality — not something that happens only during periods of economic uncertainty or major life events. When people come into work, they bring their finances with them every single day.

The research also found that 55% of those with underdeveloped financial wellness say financial concerns distract them at work. That drops to 43% for those who are moderately developed, and 32% for those who are highly developed. Even at the highest level of financial wellness, one in three workers say their finances are impacting their ability to focus. Financial stress bleeds into work, just as work can bleed into life, and the scope of that challenge is quite vast.

Nicole: Both of you talked about caring for the whole person — not just the employee. That's the critical piece organizations have to recognize. Kristen, are there financial wellness challenges showing up across income levels in ways organizations might not expect?

Kristen: For low- and middle-income workers, a lot of it is what you'd expect. It's the inability to see past the next month or two, or to sustain an unexpected setback. For that group, it can be very tempting to leave for a higher salary. So educating employees on your total rewards philosophy and providing them a total rewards statement — showing how $5,000 in additional salary may pale in comparison to the full benefits package — is an important action item.

The real surprise is that these challenges exist across income levels. The assumption is that executives and high earners have the financial wherewithal to manage their personal finances, but I have two thoughts on that.

First, lifestyle creep is real — earning more doesn't automatically mean saving more. Second, high earners likely have more complex financial lives and may lack the time and clarity to understand how their workplace benefits integrate with their overall financial plan. During major life events or transitions, they need additional support — often to complement financial advice they're already receiving outside the workplace. It's all treated in silos, and integration, as we keep coming back to, is so important.

Nicole: Thank you, Kristen. Ragan, one of the strongest findings is the relationship between financial wellness and employee engagement, commitment, and job satisfaction. Which of those findings do you think HR leaders should pay the closest attention to?

Ragan: That's a great question, and I think it depends on your organization's goals. If you're focused on retention or workforce stability, organizational commitment is probably the one to watch closely. If you're focused on performance and productivity, engagement is often a leading indicator of those outcomes, so that relationship might be where you focus first.

Ultimately, it's about aligning the outcome with what your organization is prioritizing at any given time. They're all important, and it's hard to choose just one.

Nicole: Another takeaway is that HR professionals often look at engagement, commitment, and job satisfaction through an internal lens only. They're not always considering external factors — like whether someone is in a difficult financial situation. We can absolutely impact financial wellness as HR professionals and as organizations, but are we actually digging into that as a contributing factor, alongside things like management or work environment?

Ragan: That's a great point. It comes back to seeing the human as a whole person. It's not just workplace factors — it's the whole picture.

Nicole: Kristen, I loved the section you covered on communicating with the CFO. If you're sitting across from a CFO who's skeptical about investing in financial wellness initiatives, what business case would you make?

Kristen: Such an important question. You can have the greatest idea in the world — but without buy-in, it won't have legs.

I'd start with what financial wellness isn't. It's not a product or solution where you write a check, check a box, and say you have it. Employee financial wellness is something bigger than that, and it requires internal insights. There's no one-size-fits-all solution — it has to connect to your total rewards philosophy. But the costs of ignoring it are simply too high.

I can appreciate that a CFO might think, "It's unreasonable for me to solve all of my employees' financial challenges" — and technically, that may be true. But the spirit of the employment relationship is that your number one asset, even in manufacturing, is your workforce. You need to invest in making sure employees show up — and show up in a capacity where they can produce. That will hit the bottom line.

As Ragan mentioned, a distracted workforce has a real cost. You can look at trends in absenteeism, presenteeism, and ultimately attrition. Why are employees leaving? If it's because they need more money, that could be an education challenge and an opportunity.

Nicole: Ragan, one of the major themes in the report is the disconnect between what employees say they need and what organizations provide. Were there any benefits or resources that workers consistently rated as valuable that employers were much less likely to offer?

Ragan: There were a few we touched on in the presentation — things like loan support, caregiver support, equity compensation, and emergency or flexible funds.

What's notable about these in particular is how closely they align with the areas where workers reported struggling most. Things like the inability to absorb an unexpected $5,000 expense, or not having an emergency savings fund. It's not surprising that these benefits are seen as most effective by employees, because they're meeting a real need. It comes back to aligning benefits with the actual needs of your workforce.

Nicole: It seems like common sense, but clearly the gap is real. Kristen, why do you think organizations struggle to close it? Is it budget, awareness, competing priorities, or something else?

Kristen: I think a lot of it comes down to not speaking the same language — within your organization and with your employees. Of course, competing priorities are a reality. But there are also unrealistic expectations about what a specific product or service will accomplish. It really comes down to aligning on your corporate philosophy: ensuring that employees are making financial progress and building a home for them to do that within the workplace.

Nicole: For both of you — if employee financial wellness became a true strategic priority for organizations tomorrow, what's the first meaningful change workers would actually notice?

Kristen: I'd love to start with that. We don't have to have all of our financial challenges solved to feel better mentally about where we are.

What we've found is that people need a plan to follow and an understanding of what the next right decision is. That's ultimately what builds financial confidence and helps people stick with the plan. Strong financial wellness is often the accumulation of small, positive decisions — not one big initiative or one big move.

I make this analogy: How do you stay physically healthy? You exercise regularly, you make good choices about what you eat and drink, and no single day or week makes or breaks it. It's the consistency of small, positive behaviors that compounds over time.

If employees felt like they knew what those behaviors were — and felt empowered to identify that next right decision — I think they'd feel much more confident, both philosophically and mentally.

Nicole: And with those good behaviors, you're also seeing progress along the way.

Kristen: Exactly — reinforcing positive behavior. That's always the key.

Nicole: Ragan, what about you?

Ragan: I would say the first noticeable change would be employees feeling more confident using their financial wellness benefits. We've talked a bit about the importance of integration — really making sure employees understand how to navigate their benefits, how they work together rather than existing as separate, fragmented tools. A clearer, more integrated experience helps employees make better day-to-day financial decisions.

Nicole: Perfect. Thank you both, Ragan and Kristen, for sharing your insights with us.

Ragan: Thank you.

Nicole: Really appreciate it. That's going to do it for this episode of Honest HR, and we'll catch you next time.