Small business owners face the dual HR challenge of hiring motivated staff and providing competitive benefits.  Small businesses often do not have the resources to compete with the benefits provided by large companies.

One of the biggest stressors that employees face, in all businesses, is financial and this stress impacts employee productivity.

One benefit that small business owners should consider is a Financial Wellness program, which provides employees with the skills to effectively manage their financial resources.  This employee benefit is affordable to implement, popular with employees, and has immediate and lasting positive impact on employee wellness and their productivity.

There are four areas that a Financial Wellness program should consider:

Spending Plans / Household Budgets.   A spending plan (or budget) helps employees understand where they are spending their money, helps them to set priorities for spending, and helps them identify areas where they can cut spending.

Emergency Savings.  Employees must be able to handle unforeseen financial shock – job loss, illness, etc.  Yet, some statistics show that fewer than 25% of Americans have enough savings to cover 6 months of household expenses. A Financial Wellness program gives employees the skills to create an emergency savings plan.

Guidance on 401K / IRAs / 529s.  Employees need guidance they can trust to help them make decision on how to save for their retirement and/or for college for their children or other dependents.  There are many options out there for investing and providing this guidance to employees helps to alleviate stress.

Insurance.  One of the stressors employees face is protecting their financial resources and it is critical that they have health insurance.  As with investments, employees are looking for sound, trustworthy advice