Money is routinely cited as the top cause of stress in America, and stressed employees aren’t leaving financial worries behind when they come to work. Financial stress is associated with increased absenteeism, lost productivity, and a greater likelihood of departing for a new job. 

Employers frequently offer financial wellness programs to address their employees’ needs. But with nearly four out of 10 Americans unable to afford a $400 unexpected bill without borrowing money or selling something, education alone may not be enough to alleviate the problem of stressed and distracted workers. At From Day One’s September virtual conference on creating a health work environment, best-selling author and financial educator Suze Orman, who co-founded the workplace emergency savings program SecureSave in 2020, explained why. 

“When you don't have enough money to pay your bills, you don’t care about learning about money at that point in time. That is not what is going to help you,” she said in a conversation titled “What Is the Goal of Money?” The primary goal of money, Orman said, isn’t the stuff you can buy. It’s financial security. “When you're insecure, it's very hard for you to be happy or productive.” Given the messages Americans hear about how hard it is to manage money and how much help they need, it’s not surprising so many are insecure about their finances and do nothing out of fear of making mistakes, Orman noted. Financial education, including workplace financial programs, have a role in teaching Americans to manage money. 

But first, she added, employers should help workers with the pressing need for a pool of savings set aside for emergencies. “When you have financial stress and you go to work, rather than sitting there doing what you’re supposed to do and be powerful in your job, you’re sitting there worrying about, Oh, my god, how am I going to pay my bills this week?” said Orman. “The only way for you to feel secure is to have savings.”

With a workplace emergency savings account (ESA), employees can have small amounts of money deducted from each paycheck to fund an account for unplanned expenses, ideally reducing the chance they’ll resort to credit card borrowing or tapping their retirement savings early. These plans can be tied to a 401(k) workplace retirement account or operate outside of it, as SecureSave’s plan does. The SECURE 2.0 Act, passed in 2022, made it easier for employers to automatically enroll workers in emergency savings accounts tied to their workplace retirement plans — an important milestone for these plans. 

While most companies don’t yet offer ESAs, Orman noted, an increasing number are adding the option to their benefits menu, and when they do, employees are embracing them. When an employee sees how an ESA works — the ease of use, that they can get their money whenever they want, the portability if they leave the company, that the account is FDIC insured — every single person wants one, Orman asserted. “We even had one company that within one week had 100% adoption.”

In another positive sign, employees enrolled in SecureSave appear to be using the accounts as intended. “The greatest feedback that we get is that 90% of the people who put money in, they check it all the time, but they don't take it out,” Orman said. Over time, having liquid savings in an emergency account may make workers more inclined to contribute to a retirement account. “I have no doubt that a lot of these people who have never contributed to their 401(k) plans before because why they’re afraid that they couldn’t get the money out if they needed it, they will now also start to put money maybe for the first time in the employer-sponsored retirement accounts,” Orman said. “They will work hand and hand together.”

After decades of educating Americans about managing their money, Orman considers enabling emergency savings the most important work she has ever done. “If we can change the savings rate of every single person in America today, and that can be done with the help of all the employers that are out there, we can change the personal happiness and security of the whole world,” Orman said. “Once you start to save and you see you have money for the first time, you start to get as much pleasure out of saving as you did spending. And when that happens, everything in life starts to change for you.”

Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, SecureSave, who sponsored this thought leadership spotlight.

Ellen Stark is an executive editor with Foundry 360 at Dotdash Meredith, where she creates relevant and engaging content for major financial services companies. Previously, she spent more than 20 years as a writer and editor at Money magazine and Money.com.