An overwhelming majority of employees say financial wellnessshould be a part of their employer's overall wellness program, butmost employees say they are not getting financially fit at theworkplace.

An online national survey of 511 employees conducted by FourSeasons Financial Education in St. Louis, Mo., showed that 45% ofemployees said their company offers an overall wellness program,but 70% said financial wellness is not included in that program and30% said financial wellness is part of their employer's overallwellness program.

When asked whether they felt financial wellness should be partof an overall wellness program, 78% said yes, while 21% saidno.

Employees may want a financial wellness program because many are stressed out abouttheir finances, according to the Four Seasons survey.

On a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being the lowest level of stressand 10 being the highest level of stress, more than 31% ofemployees surveyed said their level of financial stress was a 10,while an additional 8% rated their financial stress level as a 7.Nearly 20% of employees rated their financial stress at 5 ormoderate, while 25% rated their stress level a 1.

A little education or guidance from a professional may helpemployees deal better with their financial stress as the surveyshowed 30% of employees said their most important financial goalwas to learn how to budget and deal with debt. And an additional19% said their most important financial goal was to get a financialplan.

Nearly 40% of employees said planning for retirement was theirmost important financial goal. Thirty percent said they found theirretirement plan at work difficult to understand, while 61% said theeducation they receive from their employer's 401(k) provider was adequate to extremely helpful.More than 17% said their 401(k) education was not helpful and 20%said they received no education about their 401(k), according tothe Four Seasons survey.

Seventy-seven percent of employees admitted they never, rarelyor sometimes read articles or web-based information provided bytheir employer's 401(k) provider. Only 21% said they often or veryoften read the 401(k) articles.

When asked what their employer could provide them with to helpthem with their retirement goals, 37% of employees said acustomized retirement plan, while 36% said access to one-on-oneprofessional guidance and 28% said live or web-based retirementeducation. Twenty-two percent of employees said they would like toinclude their spouse in retirement education.

More than 70% of employees said they would welcome the personalized and confidential guidance from an independentfinancial planner if their company paid for it, while only 26% saidthey would not want to talk to an independent financialplanner.

Twenty-eight percent of employees said they would likely bewilling to share some of the cost in a workplace financial wellnessprogram if it could help them toward their goals. Another 43% saidsharing some of the cost would be a possibility and 33% said theywould unlikely be willing to share some of the costs, according tothe Four Seasons survey.