4 ways to identify staff who are financially stressed

South Africans do not compare well with other nationalities when it comes to managing their money properly. According to a 2015 World Bank survey, there were 10.26 million South Africans with accounts that were three months in arrears.

This leads to stress, and stress can affect individuals' productivity.

Juanita Simpson, sales and marketing director at Independent Counselling and Advisory Services Southern Africa, says: "There is a direct link between the degree of financial stress someone faces and their ability to manage their expenses.

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"The cost related to financial stress can be damaging to both the employee and the employer."

Simpson, whose organisation offers behavioural risk management services to businesses as well as financial literacy courses, says that in order to treat the stress, the cause of it must be addressed - which means providing training programmes that will help employees learn to handle money.

"Employers ... will reap the benefits by increasing employee productivity, reducing absenteeism and the time spent having to deal with an employee's financial problems."

She says financially stressed employees are likely to:

• Lose focus at work because they are worrying about their personal finances during office hours;

• Change jobs often as they try to earn a little more to help them cope with their debt levels;

• Suffer from heavy drinking or drug abuse as well as health problems such as depression, anxiety and insomnia; and

• Be absent from work frequently as they struggle to make ends meet. They will also be unable to finance their transport expenses.