If you are a human resource professional or Employee Assistance Program manager, you know that employees who have money problems can cost their employers, big time.
"Money is the key issue for family and health," says Ginny Kim, an associate professor of personal financial management at the University of Maryland.
"That's the reason employers should care about employee financial matters."
Employees worried about a foreclosure or bankruptcy might sit at their desks, but spend much of their time e-mailing friends for loans, begging creditors for more time or just surfing the Web for some other financial solution.
Some refer to this phenomenon as "Present-teeism." Employees show up for work, but are mentally checked-out and consumed by financial worries.
The bottom line is that your employees' financial problems can hurt your company's bottom line. Reduced performance is common. And more destructive behavior - such as theft of inventory or other valuable company resources - is also possible. Desperate people do desperate things.
And desperate people often make a bad situation even worse. Take the rising number of employees who are borrowing against their 401Ks or IRAs - or cashing them out altogether: It's tragic, because these people think they're doing the right thing when in reality, they are just creating a bigger set of problems - like sacrificing their financial future and triggering huge IRS tax bills.
So here's the good news...
There are confidential resources available to help financially-distressed employees. If you are a human resources professional or an Employee Assistance Program manager, e-mail us now for more information: employers@voidmymortgage.com
