Reducing money worries at work

We know that people’s money problems spill over into work. One in six New Zealanders say they have difficulty managing their money, according to the latest nationwide financial knowledge survey.

If you’re an employer, how many of your employees are in that group? How many of your people are stressed, distracted, or not turning up to work because of money problems?

A review of research in the United States in 2005, suggested one in four workers were seriously financially distressed. Depending on their place of work, between 30 and 80 percent of these people spent time at work worrying about personal finances and dealing with financial issues instead of working.

Financial stress shows up in different ways at work. The businesses we talked to for our video "Sorted staff = good business" see it in increased absenteeism, reduced productivity, and in some cases, dishonesty and theft. 

As PAK‘nSAVE owner-operator Leo O’Sullivan puts it: “The biggest impact is on how people work and how much they produce. If they’re worrying about money it envelops them, they can’t see a way out and they can’t focus on their work.”

So what can you do to help your people get their finances sorted and reduce financial stress in your workplace? A simple first step is to go to the employers’ section of Sorted and have a look at the free independent resources you can use.

You might want to order free booklets for your staff or think about running a seminar at work. You can download five different seminars and all the material you need to run them.

Some of your people might also benefit from building financial education into their formal training. You can find out about unit standards for personal financial management at financialliteracy.org.nz, or talk to your ITO.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal reported on the growth of financial education programmes within US workplaces. It also looked at barriers to their success and posed an important question – how do you get the people who most need help with their finances to attend a programme?

For the employee perspective, watch Willamene (NZ Post) and Wal (Printlink) in the videos below. They are compelling examples of how, with a bit of help, ordinary Kiwis can get on top of debt and save for the things they want, now and in the future.