BC Holdings of Tennessee (BCH)  is excited to partner with MBE to bring you the most impactful financial literacy content in each issue. Because your personal finances and financial profile are fundamental to your business success, our goal is to assist you, as rising or established entrepreneurs, to grow your wealth in your business and personal wealth for your employees. 

We are an 8(a) certified, MBE, veteran-owned, SDVOSB, GSA contractor and for two decades, BCH has utilized five key financial components to elevate business owners and job creators to financial security: Building Wealth, Protecting Wealth, Protecting Income, Life Planning, and Building Your Team. Our company is honored to contribute to the MBE community, so keep your eyes out for our column in each quarterly print issue and each month at mbemag.com as we help turn your vision and success into economic mobility and wealth! 

Click here for more info about BCH!

Employee Financial Distress Affects the Bottom Line

As entrepreneurs, you may have noticed that the American employee has emerged from the pandemic feeling financially anxious about their finances. Most employees state that they live paycheck-to-paycheck and consider their financial situation to be impecunious. After they leave the workplace, many worry about making ends meet. Those same employees take their places at work the following day and are expected to perform at the highest levels for your customers. However, their money concerns ultimately affect their engagement, performance, and productivity, but also your company culture, morale, and profitability. Many times, business owners may not recognize that the root problem is financial distress. Consider the following research on the impact of financial stress in the workplace:

• According to Financial Well-being statistics, one out of every four employees is financially distressed. Studies show that there is a direct link between employees being stressed and tired at work to their elevated debt-to-income ratio at home. Their inability to make ends meet paired with financial demands of children’s education, elderly parents, and student loan debt weigh heavily at work.

• Seven out of ten American workers say financial stress is their most common cause of stress, and almost half (48%) find dealing with their financial situation stressful. 

• A Wall Street Journal poll shows that more than 75% of the American worker population lives paycheck to paycheck.

• Employees spend 3 hours each week or 45 minutes a day at work trying to determine how to make ends meet.

Financial Education Positively Impacts Employees

So, as fellow entrepreneurs, many of you are questioning how to improve these outcomes. Acknowledging the link between financial readiness, operational readiness and mission readiness in the workplace is a great first step!

Research by The Personal Finance Employee Education Foundation (PFEEF) reports that financial education helps save up to $2,000 per employee annually through increased productivity, reduced stress, lower health care costs, and better utilization of employee benefits. For employers, the result increased bottom lines and performance excellence in departmental goals and results.

In professional and performance development, HR executives implemented Change Management, Self-Management, Conflict Resolution and Time Management training because they provide solutions for opportunities they believe necessary to improve organizational outcomes. The need for Financial Readiness Management and its unyielding impact on Performance, Operational and Mission Readiness has emerged as essential for development, especially when dealing with economic uncertainty. 

With over 79% of companies today implementing financial wellness programs, financial readiness is increasingly becoming the new face of productivity at the workplace and has become an integral part of employee learning development functions (professional, leadership, and performance development programs) as well as employee benefit’s initiatives. 

Armed with the new knowledge you have gained reading this month’s column, we invite you to take part in our poll. “Does your company currently offer a financial literacy program?”. Scan the QR code with your mobile device or go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/YP6DWKH to participate in this month’s poll. The results will be revealed in the next issue. 

We’re excited to be connected with you and your 2023 Destination: Financial Wellness journey to prosperity! See you next month! 

-Sidney and Saundra Curry 
BC Holdings of Tennessee, LLC creates new pathways for everyone to achieve balanced abundance by delivering comprehensive financial education and wellness training. Find us online at www.bcholdingsllc.com.