Most everyone knows what wellness programs are designed to dofor the body—help you get and stay more physically fit and be moreproactive for your personal health. But what about financialwell-being? Do your employees suffer from the financial flu?

Money worries have become a significant distraction foremployees during working hours. Not Facebook, not chain emails, notweight loss—worries about money. Although many U.S. businesses haverecovered from the Great Recession, many who work at thosebusinesses haven't.

The Society for Human Resource Management says those worries arenow a huge drain on employee productivity. According to SHRM, sevenout of 10 human resource professionals said that personal financialchallenges have an impact on their employees' performance. Andnearly 40 percent of employees are facing greater personalfinancial challenges now compared with the onset of the recessionin 2007.

And that's just the HR professionals who are attuned to thefinancial difficulty their employees face. Others could beclueless. The survey also uncovered this alarming fact: Employeeswere 60 percent more likely to tap their retirement account for aloan than in previous years, and 44 percent are more likely to askfor a hardship withdrawal from retirement savings.

In today's economy, many of your employees are experiencingfinancial distress. Employee financial distress costsemployers:

• Increased absenteeism

• Lower productivity

• Increased turnover

• Decreased employee health

• Diminished work environment

Even in a good economy, individual financial wellness isimportant. For employers, the well-being of employees is a criticalcomponent to success. Today, the financial distress employeesexperience is yet one more way a bad economy impacts your business.When workplace outcomes can be improved, everyone benefits. Thebenefits to employers are definitely worthwhile, leading toenhanced productivity, decreased absenteeism and improved employeehealth and preventative care/lower health care costs.

Typically, financial wellness programs offer an array ofproactive financial planning tools that help you better manage yourmoney in the short term (through budgeting, credit counseling andthe like) and in the long term (retirement planning). Even ifoffered as an employer benefit, employees should weigh these threefactors: the services offered, confidentiality, and their ingrainedfinancial habits.

Establishing and maintaining healthy spending and saving habitsis as important to your employees' wellbeing as proper nutritionand regular exercise. You can achieve financial wellness—thebalance between living responsibly today and planning wisely fortomorrow. A good financial wellness program should include theseinitiatives:

• Help your employees build awareness of their financialsituation

• Provide your employees education for establishing financialgoals

• Empower your employees to change their behavior and achievetheir goals through informed choices in the financial planningprocess

Other good financial wellness programs in the market includetelephone counseling and web-based programs. You may want toconsider a more broad-based approach by offering a menu of itemsincluding these and other services, such as an EAP product, IDtheft protection, tax and legal services, financial advice andmore.

For many companies, employee financial wellness is the missingpiece to maximizing the effectiveness of existing wellness programsand fully containing health care costs—not to mention fostering aworkforce of healthier, happier and more productive employees whoare engaged and empowered.