Financial stress is a workplace issue. But the solution doesn’t always have to be complicated.

By Darren Stones, Head of Business Development, Shop St.

For employers, financial wellbeing can often feel like a difficult problem to solve.

Employees have very different financial circumstances. The causes of financial stress are often complex. With budgets under increasing pressure however, employers understandably want to know that any investment in employee benefits is delivering genuine value.

There is of course an important distinction between solving someone’s entire financial situation and helping to make their everyday finances a little easier and this is where relatively simple benefits can have a surprisingly important role to play.

Financial stress doesn’t stay at home

The latest evidence makes it increasingly difficult to regard financial stress as purely a personal issue.

Research reported by People Management on 19 August found that 67% of employees now say money worries affect their productivity at work, up from 38% in 2025. Of those affected, 37% said they had taken time off work in the previous year because of financial stress.

The CIPD’s 2026 research tells a similar story. Its Good Work Index found that 32% of employees said money worries had affected their ability to do their job, including 39% of those earning up to £20,000 and, importantly, 25% of those earning £60,000 or more.

The evidence makes it clear that this isn’t simply a problem affecting the lowest-paid employees, financial pressure can affect anyone and the consequences can be felt by employers.

REBA reports research from the Centre for Economics and Business Research estimating that financial worries contribute to 16 million lost working days each year, with an estimated £6.6bn cost to employers from reduced productivity and £3.7bn from absenteeism.

Financial wellbeing is therefore much more than a nice-to-have, it is a business performance issue.

This is where the ROI becomes particularly interesting

Employee benefits increasingly have to justify their place in the budget.

The CIPD’s 2026 Reward Survey found that while 77% of employers link benefits to at least one objective, only 31% connect their benefits directly to productivity or business performance.

Employers need to start thinking differently about what they expect from their benefits and how they assess their value so the conversation can move beyond:

“We think employees like this benefit.”

towards:

“This is what we invested, this is how employees engaged with it, and this is the value they received.”

That is a much more compelling ROI story for HR, Finance and the Board.

Financial wellbeing doesn’t have to be complicated

We should be careful not to suggest that saving £25 or £50 a month will solve financial stress. For someone dealing with serious debt or financial hardship, it clearly won’t.

Financial wellbeing however is also about financial resilience — having a little more money available, reducing the pressure of everyday costs and making household income stretch further.

There is already growing evidence that even relatively modest financial pressures can affect how people feel and perform at work.

The CIPD says financial wellbeing can affect performance, absence, engagement and retention, while its latest Reward Survey found that only 15% of UK organisations have a formal financial wellbeing policy or strategy.

That suggests there is still considerable scope for employers to do more but the answer doesn’t necessarily have to be an expensive new programme, it can start with something simple, practical and affordable.