Does your workforce’s financial stress qualify as an emerging risk?

A company that operates a financial help line for corporate clients has published a report with some troubling data and an ominous warning: “… we are entering a ‘perfect storm’ for retirement planning which will have a huge impact on our society. The credit crisis was the first financial crisis to hit us. The retirement crisis will be next.”

The report is based on an analysis of all the employees from different companies that use the firm’s financial help line.

Not surprisingly, employees’ overall financial stress levels rose significantly from Q4 2008 to Q1 2009. But that stress is not the only trend worth watching from a risk management perspective.

During the past several quarters, financial help line callers’ focus on short-term financial issues (debt and money management) has soared while their focus on long-term financial management (i.e., retirement planning) has plummeted. In fact, nearly nine out of 10 callers who asked questions about retirement investing wanted to know about changing their asset allocations in light of the pummeling their holdings have taken due to the economy.

Now, back to my question.

Does the workforce’s financial problems qualify as a risk management concern?

I’m not armed with data showing correlations between workforce problems (lack of engagement, productivity loss, violence, etc.) and financial stress, but it’s difficult for me to see how the answer can be “no.”

As progressive risk management expands to integrate with performance management and corporate sustainability, the workforce’s overall health (envision a human capital light on your risk management dashboard) seems a vital measure to monitor and manage. ###