HR Executive’s 2025 report reveals that 76% of HR professionals said their stress is rising – and for good reason. HR leaders today are carrying the weight of the entire employee experience, while juggling tighter budgets, leaner teams, and growing concerns about safety incidents, turnover, and burnout.
Providing employees with a benefit that addresses their biggest financial challenges and reduces their financial stress won’t solve all HR challenges – but it can move the needle on several of them. Here’s how.
Improved financial health reduces absenteeism
A study of clerical workers published by researchers at Virginia Tech and Texas Tech found that financial stress was one of the strongest predictors of absenteeism, even more than age, income, or education level. In fact:
- Workers who experienced more financially stressful events in the previous year were absent from work significantly more often.
- Employees with little or no savings and high amounts of debt were absent more frequently.
- Those who reported financial behaviors including budgeting, saving, and managing their credit score missed fewer days of work.
The study concluded that improving employee financial health was linked to fewer missed workdays, and estimated that shift alone could save employers $440 million a year – just among clerical workers.
Financial safety nets improve workplace safety
One field study from the University of Pittsburgh sought to measure the impact that having emergency savings could have on workplace safety and performance among short-haul truck drivers. In it, the participating employer offered truck drivers (who had an average household income of $65,300) the opportunity to join a payroll-linked emergency savings program.
Each driver agreed to contribute $19 directly from each paycheck into an emergency savings account. Provided the driver contributed from each paycheck and did not withdraw funds from the account, the employer agreed to match 12% of the amount the employee had saved after six months.
The program led to an 87% reduction in the number of safety citations the drivers received over the year following enrollment in the program. Importantly, the more financially unhealthy the drivers were, the more positively impacted their driving records were by having emergency savings.
The study also revealed that while one in six drivers experienced a money emergency in the 12-month period after the program began, having emergency savings appeared to act as a buffer that had a positive effect on their driving performance.
Not only did the study show that improving employees’ financial security positively impacted job performance, it underscored the importance of prioritizing support for financially sick employees.
Brightside Financial Care delivers results that help employees and HR teams
When frontline employees engage with Brightside, 90% say they feel less financial stress – and it shows in their work performance. In fact, they work 36+ more hours per year compared to their peers who don’t use Brightside.
Brightside’s impact is so profound because we’re built for the seven in 10 working families who live paycheck to paycheck and have real solutions for all financial situations – including homelessness, eviction, and everyday money problems.
Learn more about Brightside and how offering it as an employee benefit can help your team do more, with less stress.
