• One in four employees has lost sleep over money worries, with 6% taking time off work
• Financial stress costs employers £120.7bn every year
• Those businesses that fail to tackle financial stress face poor work performance, lack of engagement, mental health issues among staff and absenteeism

CEOs are largely aware that financial pressures impact employee behaviour, performance and relationships at work according to a new study carried out among 10,000 employees and 580 employers. Neyber’s DNA of Financial Wellbeing 2018 found that 72% of CEO’s understand the impacts of financial stress on employees and the business, while 51% of company owners and 74% of senior managers also do.

Since last year, there has been a significant increase of employees affected by financial worries – up from 58% to 63%, as well as those with less than one month’s savings – up from 24% to 32%. Fourteen percent say they have zero savings.

This stress on individuals is having a severe business impact. One in four employees said they had lost sleep over money troubles in the last year, one in ten said that they couldn’t focus on work and 6 percent said they had had to take time off work.

All this adds up to a substantial cost for employers to bear. Neyber has calculated that the lost productivity and increased absence and employee turnover associated with financial stress costs UK companies in the region of £120.7 billion every year.

Business impacts of financial stress:

Employees who’ve been stressed 35%

Employees who’ve lost sleep 26%

Employees who’ve been depressed 20%

Employees who’ve been unable to focus at work 10%

Employees who’ve taken time off 6%

Heidi Allan, Head of Employee Wellbeing at Neyber, said:

“Thousands of employees reported how financial worries are impacting them, including 35% who have felt stressed, 33% anxious, 26% lost sleep and 20% depressed.

“With the magnitude of this issue, it’s clear that employers have a vested interest in helping employees manage their money, so each can feel more educated and in control. From my view, there are three key issues; financial stress has a significant impact on productivity and behaviour at work, there is a link between physical, mental and financial health, and billions of pounds are lost each year in absence and employee turnover.”

Jonathan Hollow, Financial Capability, Strategy and Innovation at Money Advice Service, concluded:

“Every employer should care about the findings in this report. A growing body of evidence shows that anxiety about finances leads to poorer mental, physical and social wellbeing, and that this affects attendance and performance at work. When your workforce suffers, your business can suffer too.”

Neyber’s full report – the DNA of financial wellbeing – can be found here.