Talking aboutfinances can be overwhelming and anxiety-inducing; talking aboutcreating a budget is more attainable. (Photo:Shutterstock)

More employers today are understanding the impact of financial wellness on their employees.Financial stress makes workers less engaged and productive and canlead to more missed work. As such, more are adding financialwellness tools to their benefit portfolio.

Young adults in particular struggle with their finances andworry about making ends meet and paying off their debt. Thisgroup more than most stands to benefit from theresources their employers are offering, but often it's the sameinsecurities and anxieties that contribute totheir financial situation that make it hard to understand andutilize those tools.

Related: Financial wellness programs pay off for repeatusers

At the recent SHRM 2018 Conference in Chicago, a panel of HRprofessionals and financial wellness aficionados shared severalexamples of successful financial programs implemented by employersand the effect each had on employees.

The takeaway? Stop calling it “finance.”

“If you say, 'Come talk to us about your finances,' that'soverwhelming for folks,” says Amanda Carney, co-founder of WorkingCredit NFP, a non-profit financial program that focuses on helpingindividuals understand and take control of their credit score.

Working Credit is an example of how employers are tacklingfinancial wellness in small, manageable segments that don'toverwhelm and alienate workers. “We realized credit is foundationaland monumental to financial health,” Carney explains. “Good creditopens doors–43 percent of landlords check credit. It also allowsyou to qualify for lower rates on car loan and credit cards.”

Her company works with employers to educate employees on theimpact of credit scores on areas such as car loans, mortgages andrentals and encourages them to establish and build a good creditscore. It's a great place to start, says Carney, in part becauseit's not based on income (and in fact often has the most impact forlow-income workers) or ability to save, and the results are almostimmediate.

Also sharing a success story was Katherine Brune, senior vicepresident of employee well-being for SunTrust Bank. Ironically, asurvey of SunTrust employees' well-being revealed that they werelagging in the financial aspect.

One of the first focuses of SunTrust's financial program iscreating an emergency fund. “It's hard to talk about retirementwhen you're worried about paying your rent,” Brune says.So, theystart with savings, but not in terms of X weeks or months ofexpenses. “It has to be the first 100, then thousand,” she says.“It has to be incremental education so that it feels like it's not'finance.'”

The program also addresses creating budgets, actively reviewingexpenses such as car insurance, changing life events–breaking downthe components of “finance” into much less intimidating activities.And once employees are comfortable with the fundamentals such as“credit,” “budget” and “savings,” they can move on to words like“investment” and “retirement account.”

“It's not just the event,” says Brune, referring to thecomponents of the wellness program, “The education, empowerment andconfidence last for years to come.”