Easing the Burden of Employees' Debt

At Enterprise Integration Inc., a Jacksonville, Fla.-based information technology company, "Some of our people [are] so deep in credit card debt, they can't dig themselves out," says Human Resource Director Kimberly Steigelman, SPHR.

"Some workers have gotten themselves into variable-rate

mortgages because they seemed to be a good bet at the time," Steigelmen continues. Now, "rates have gone way up, and all too many homeowners can't make their mortgage payments on top of all their other expenses."

It's not just homeowners who have budget problems. "Our employees are struggling with the rising cost of health care and, at the same time, are trying to put away money in 401(k) and other retirement plans," adds Patricia Knight, PHR, an HR manager with Kaplan Early Learning Co. in Lewisville, N.C.

According to Howard S. Dvorkin, founder and chief executive officer of Consolidated Credit Counseling Services (CCCS) in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and author of Credit Hell: How To Dig Out Of Debt (John Wiley and Sons, 2005), it's common "to see employees balancing their checkbooks at work, calling their banks and calling creditors while they are supposed to be on the job."

On top of this, Dvorkin says, more people are getting "second jobs as waiters and waitresses, working at night and working on weekends to the point where they're too tired and not able to focus well on the work at hand."

As bad news mounts on the economic front, more employers are taking a strong proactive. approach to help their employees better manage personal finances. Whether through workshops, courses, online resources or one-on-one sessions with financial counselors, experts say these investments pay big dividends.

"If it saves HR [the time and energy spent on] one wage garnishment per month, it's worth it," contends Catherine M. Williams, who administers financial literacy programs for Money Management International, a nonprofit credit counseling organization in Chicago.

Equipping workers to deal with the financial challenges of life, the argument goes, gives them confidence and security that carries into their work through increased productivity, job satisfaction and retention.

"In the same way that we have we have doctors come in to discuss medical topics like diabetes, this is a focus on financial health, "explains Linda Fry, HR specialist with the Pompano Beach, Fla., city government.