Remember the unsettling 1968 horror movie, “Night of the Living Dead”?  Despite the grainy black and white low-budget production, the film was then and continues to be, desolately disturbing because it taps into the uncertainty and anxiety that we all feel when faced with unaccountable terrors.  Recent research confirms that today’s workers are experiencing plenty of terrors, not those of George Romero’s classic film perhaps, but the ghouls of financial stress which keep them awake at night and distracted during the day. 

If many of your workers are struggling to concentrate on the job at hand and functioning at less than optimum capacity, the damage to personal lives and business productivity is a serious one.  But you as plan sponsor are in the unique position of being able to address these issues for your employees.  Consider offering a series of financial literacy workshops in which employees are given the tools to  budget and plan in a more disciplined manner, figure out their credit scores, understand the principle of compounding and how interest rates work.

. . . Think these are only [baby boomer] issues?  Think again.  According to Thrivent Financial Survey, 66 percent of Generation-Xers (those born between 1960 and 1984) admit to thinking about their finances on a daily basis. [N]early half (46 percent) also worry about the finances of their parents and siblings. 

. . . Seminars offered by professional educators have been proven most effective as long as the educator is well-versed in the details and able to demystify and simplify the topic. Employees deserve the opportunity to ask questions, receive answers in plain English and engage in hands-on exercises, quizzes, tips and step-by-step guides that give them the tools to planning their financial lives more effectively.

The rest of the story . . . .