Most everyone knows what wellness programs are designed to do for the body — help employees get and stay more physically fit and be more proactive with personal health. But what about financial well-being? Do the nation's employees suffer from the financial flu?

A new survey said money worries have become a significant distraction for employees during working hours. Not Facebook, not chain emails, not weight loss — worries about money.

The survey has implications for credit unions as employers and as benefit providers that partner with select employee groups.

Although many U.S. businesses have recovered from the Great Recession, many of the people who work at those businesses haven't. The Society for Human Resource Management said those worries are now a huge drain on employee productivity.

Here's what the 2014 SHRM survey Financial Wellness in the Workplace found:

• Seven out of 10 human resource professionals said personal financial challenges have a large or some impact on their employees' performance.
• More than 40% said that difficulty in covering personal expenses is having a workplace impact on employees.
• Almost 40% of employees are facing greater personal financial challenges now compared with the onset of the recession in 2007.
• Nearly 25% of human resources professionals said employees are experiencing more personal financial challenges now compared with 12 months ago.

And those numbers represent HR professionals who are attuned to the financial difficulty of their employees. Others could be clueless.

The survey also uncovered this alarming fact: Employees were 60% more likely to tap their retirement account for a loan than in previous years, and 44% were more likely to ask for a hardship withdrawal from retirement savings.

In today's economy, many of your employees are experiencing financial distress. Employee financial distress costs employers:

• Increased absenteeism
• Lower productivity
• Increased turnover
• Decreased employee health
• Diminished work environment

Even in a good economy, individual financial wellness is important. For employers, the well-being of employees is a critical component to success. Today, the financial distress employees experience is yet one more way a bad economy impacts your business. When workplace outcomes can be improved, everyone benefits. The benefits to employers are definitely worthwhile, leading to the following positive results:

• Enhanced productivity
• Decreased absenteeism
• Improved employee health and preventative care/lower health care costs
• Increased pay satisfaction
• Utilized benefits

Typically, financial wellness programs offer an array of proactive financial planning tools that help employees better manage money in the short term (through budgeting, credit counseling and the like) and in the long term (retirement planning). Even if offered as an employer benefit, employees should weigh these three factors: The services offered, confidentiality and their ingrained financial habits.

Establishing and maintaining healthy spending and saving habits is as important to employees' well being as proper nutrition and regular exercise. Firms can achieve financial wellness — the balance between living responsibly today and planning wisely for tomorrow. 

According to Waddell & Reed, financial wellness isn't about money; it's about decision-making. A good financial wellness program should include these initiatives:

• Help employees build awareness of their financial situation.
• Provide employees education for establishing financial goals.
• Empower employees to change their behavior and achieve their goals through informed choices in the financial planning process.

For many companies, employee financial wellness is the missing piece to maximizing the effectiveness of existing wellness programs and fully containing health care costs — not to mention fostering a workforce of healthier, happier and more productive employees who are engaged and empowered.