Stressed workers leading to decreased productivity? You should definitely give this a read…

Financial issues induce stress and lead to decreased productivity

Even with over 170 million workers employed in the blue-collar jobs in India, the low-income group has still not drawn enough attention towards itself and there are only a handful of companies actually offering practically possible financial options for them which leaves them largely vulnerable.?

With the advent of globalisation and rapid changes in technology, there have been significant changes in the financial sector and all for the better. But, the low-income group has always been exploited. In the present times, as a consequence of this struggle, people belonging to the low-income group are often stressed by financial burdens for regular, unexpected and emergency expenditures.?

This in turn also leads to attrition and affects the quality of work, employers incur a significant amount of loss due to it. The money spent on recruiting, training, wages paid during training, time lost in replacing the employee, etc. leaves a huge dent and it often leads to salary cuts and layoffs again putting pressure on these people.

Reasons for the same

There are a variety of reasons which force them to choose precarious financial options despite a large number of alternatives being available. Due to the high rate of illiteracy, lack of options, lack of awareness among other reasons, they choose risky and manipulative financial options.?

Even with the modern methods and technology they are still entangled in the vicious cycle due to a lack of good and risk-free financial options, loan sharks that lend money easily but charge very high interest rates, lack of understanding of how the system works, unofficial lending which fails to generate a credit score and makes them unable to procure loans, little or no knowledge of government schemes and measures in place for them, etc. All this increases the amount of stress in their life leading to decreased productivity. Awful, isn’t it?

Risky financial options are the culprits

Let us divide the financial options into two broad categories for low-income groups. The first is the ‘formal’ category which would include the likes of banks, financial services, recognized private lenders, government schemes and systems where everything is well documented and the amount of risk is low. But blue-collar workers are unable to use these methods.?

Then comes the ‘informal’ category which includes local lenders, loan sharks, etc., who lend money without much documentation but charge exorbitant interest rates leaving the borrower in flux.

The number of blue-collar workers is increasing with each passing day. The person delivering your food, or bringing a package that you ordered online for a loved one, all fall in this category. Hence, there is an urgent need for us to address the issues faced by our helping hands as this would not just resolve their issues but would also benefit the employers and contribute better to the economy. By bringing down the rate of attrition it would reduce the costs to the company significantly and would boost the productivity too. Makes sense, right?

The key to resolve your issues?

By offering innovative and tailored solutions like day-to-day insurances to reduce the stress induced by the lack of comprehensive health options for them and their families at a premium they can afford.?

Medical loans for medical emergencies as they are most likely to fall prey to loan sharks during these. Easy EMIs for repayment with less interest rates considering their limited earnings.?

Given their meager salaries, when even ‘roti, kapda aur makaan’ is a fight every day, regular incentives and options for long-term savings would definitely motivate them and increase productivity.?

Easy and risk-free lending options at low interest rates which would also generate a credit score making them eligible for taking loans from banks in future.?

Facilitation with the processes and on-boarding for ESI, EPF, Pension and all other government schemes they are eligible to avail of and rightfully deserve.???

We have a few players who are making this possible (ESPL link embedded here)?so that you can focus on your business without worrying about attrition and productivity while also securing the present and future of a huge chunk of population bereft of the basics.