Back in November, I talked with BenefitsPro.com reporter Paula Aven Gladych about some of the trends we were seeing with companies adding a financial wellness component to their existing wellness programs. Last year we saw more in this space than in any other type of financial education program, with over 80 percent of inquires specifically for these type of programs.

This could be the result of employers feeling the impact of employees' financial stress on HR and company-wide initiatives as employees endure a bumpy economic recovery. A recent SHRM study found that 83 percent of HR professionals felt their employees' personal financial issues affected them in some way at work.

But whether a company's financial wellness program actually reduces costs to their bottom line is what ultimately determines whether it's an effective strategy. Recently, one of our largest Fortune 500 clients evaluated their own financial wellness program to determine if it was actually achieving results.