Employee financial stress can no longer be ignored, as it affects productivity, decision-making, engagement, health costs and attrition. Finsafe’s India State of Financial Wellbeing at Workplace 2025 Report highlights growing concerns from employees on ability to meet future financial goals and managing in case of a job loss. 74% of the respondents were not even sure if their emergency savings was enough and only 34% of respondents are saving more than 20% of their take-home income. High debt, low savings and lack of understanding of financial topics are leading to employees being totally unprepared for the future. Changes in wage code and other macroeconomic shifts are only increasing the worries. Various studies show burnout and stress are significantly higher in India as compared to global averages.
With money being one of the biggest stressors, it is time that financial wellbeing programmes move on from being generic, one-size-fits-all to being more aligned with the real financial needs of employees. A root cause analysis can be helpful in moving financial wellbeing from a blanket offering to a programme which addresses the lived realities.
An RCA helps identify:
- Level of financial stress
- The systemic drivers of financial stress, such as lack of savings, too many loans, limited understanding of employee-provided benefits, poor benefits communication or access gaps
- Which levers the organisation can realistically influence
Without an RCA, organisations keep having webinars, apps and helplines, but stress will still persist. An RCA reveals the mismatch between financial wellness solutions and outcomes, which could be due to:
- Life-stage mismatches: Employees at different income levels experience financial stress for fundamentally different reasons. Lower-income employees often face survival stress – irregular cash flow, debt dependency, and inability to absorb even minor shocks. Middle-income employees experience compression stress – rising EMIs, education costs, housing aspirations and stagnant real wages. Pre-retirees are worried about how to get regular cash flows. Women may have challenges with lesser savings due to shorter career span.
- Structural constraints like insufficient savings capacity and incapability of taking action despite having the knowledge, the key question being how employees can manage finances in light of the increasing inflation and expenses.
- Cultural barriers – for example, women face the stigma around money conversations.
Essentially an RCA helps in moving from activity-based to outcome-driven financial wellbeing. To move from optics to outcomes, organisations need to identify structural drivers within organisational control using quantitative surveys with qualitative insights. Surveys are effective at answering what is happening, like levels of financial stress, financial preparedness, utilisation of benefits and programmes. Qualitative inputs such as focus groups, confidential interviews, and open-ended survey responses can help understand where employees need to be supported more. For example, one organisation found that men were burdened by being the primary provider in their family and needed help on how to share the responsibility with family members. An IT company with young employees found them to have high debt to cover F&O trading losses. The common concern of how to save for a child’s higher education is not about which instrument to save in but how to find funds for this goal, given all other goals. Programmes should be designed around these concern areas. Overall, it is essential for financial wellbeing to be segmented based on life stage and other cohorts like gender, workmen, LGBTQ, etc., for better adoption and impact.
In 2026, financial wellbeing needs to move from being another benefit programme to being on the leadership’s radar, with key focus areas being:
- What is the gross employee financial risk score at an organisational level and what risk does this pose to the organisation?
- What are the essential programs employees need, to achieve financial stability and financially future proof themselves?
Because financial wellbeing is foundational to overall wellbeing.