Manymillennials are wondering how they can feel so bad (financially)when they “did all the right things” (educationally). (Photo:Shutterstock)

Stress. Shame. Confusion. Embarrassment.

That’s what comes to mind for millennial employees when they think abouttheir personal finances. It’s draining employees’ability to stay focused on the work at hand and maximize theircreativity and productivity. According to a 2017 PWC Employee Financial Wellness Survey, 65percent of millennials reported being stressed about theirfinances. Additionally, approximately one-third of employees reportbeing distracted by personal finance issues while atwork, with almost half of them spending three hours or more eachweek handling these matters during the work day.

Related: Employees want financial wellness, just don’t callit that

While employee financial stress is not new, it’s particularlystrong among millennials. This group is experiencing many firsts.They are the first generation to face such a large student loan debt crisis. They are thefirst to need to save enough money to fund retirements that may be the longest inhuman history. These are no small challenges.

With millennials set to comprise 50 percent of the globalworkforce in less than two years, it is essential that employershelp this group garner the tools necessary to experience financialcalm, clarity, and confidence in the face of these challenges. Butfirst, we need to understand why millenials are reluctant toaddress their financial concerns head-on.

Millennial employees are distracted by money shame

Millennials tend to be a pretty outspoken group. So why are theynot speaking up more about their financial stress and the degree towhich it distracts them at work?

A big part of this is overarching “money shame.” After years ofschooling and higher education, it frankly can feel embarrassing toadmit one is struggling with money issues. This is particularlytrue if the money issues are due to student loan debt – a kind of“good debt” that was supposed to make their lives better. Manymillennials are wondering how they can feel so bad (financially)when they “did all the right things” (educationally). As anemployer, you need to recognize this money shame is causing yourmillennial employees to hold back asking for help.

How employers can help their millennials overcome moneyfears

Employers can help their millennial employees overcome theirmoney woes by providing financial wellness education around the twoareas causing the most financial stress for millennials: studentloan debt and saving for retirement.

Both of these topics can be extremely overwhelming so baby stepsare key. A good introduction to both of these topics could be aneducational video laying the groundwork for the big concepts thatneed to be addressed to help ease employees into the reality ofdealing with each of these vital issues.

With regard to student loans, the education here is trickier, assome employees will have government loans, some may have privateloans and some may have a combination of both. Providing basiceducational lunch-and-learn type lectures to review the role ofbudgeting in finding the extra funds to accelerate debt paydown,and to discuss various options for consolidation, income basedrepayment plans and other options can help give employees a senseof relief that they have some tools and information they canuse.

When it comes to retirement, many 401k and 403b providers offeronsite education for plan participants. Instructing these providersto focus heavily on these three points can go a long ways towardshelping millennials understand how to make smart choices here:

1. The mathematical impact of saving early (i.e. a dollar savedand invested for your retirement in your mid 20s is four to fivetimes more valuable than a dollar saved in your mid 40′s due to thepower of compounding).

2. It’s not enough to save for retirement; wise investmentchoices must be made too (and often the smartest and most costeffective decision here is to use target date retirement fundscomposed of underlying index funds).

3. The extremely positive mathematical implications ofcontributing to a retirement plan at least to the point of theemployer’s match (i.e. that this is literally “free” money andequates to a guaranteed rate of return; if you are matched $0.50 onthe $1.00 that’s a guaranteed 50 percent return which youwill not get anywhere else!)

While there are very few “sure things” in the business world,investing in reducing millennial employee financial stress andincreasing work enjoyment and productivity has the potential togenerate positive “human capital” dividends for years to come.

Manisha Thakor, CFA, CFP® is a Grokkerfinancial expert and VP of Financial Education at Brighton Jonesand the founder of MoneyZen.com. She earned her BA from WellesleyCollege, her MBA from Harvard Business School, and is both a CFAcharterholder and a CFP® practitioner.