Financial wellness should be important to employers because "when employees are stressed, they are going to have more sick days, less engagement and employers may experience turnover," Anderson said. "It affects their bottom line."

Stress is a direct or indirect cause of up to 70 percent of doctor visits, according to the American Psychological Association, and financial stress is the most common form of stress.

Research has shown that if employees maximize and utilize their company-provided benefits, they feel more loyalty to their employer, she said. "With a wellness program, you can see how it benefits employees, but it really benefits the employer."

The Personal Finance Employee Education Foundation conducted an analysis of the effectiveness of education on reducing costs. It reported that financial education helps save up to $2,000 per employee annually through increased productivity, reduced health care costs and better utilization of employee benefits. It also found that there is a 3-to-1 return on investment on education, Anderson said.

According to a Financial Finesse case study in 2011, one of its clients saved health care costs for all employees by changing its plan in 2010. It found that the employees who also participated in the company's financial wellness program saved the company much more in health care costs than those who did not participate in the program. The difference between users and non-users of the program was staggering. Heavy financial users saved the company nearly 22 percent compared to a little more than 4 percent for non-users.

The case study included 34,566 employees, 8,195 of them who used the financial wellness program and 1,534 who had three or more interactions with the program.

Employers also stand to benefit if their employees have the ability to retire on time, Anderson said. "Delayed retirement can cost [an employer] up to $50,000 a year…. Older employees have higher salaries and benefits. That is probably a conservative estimate of what it costs for delayed retirement."

The bottom line is that "financial wellness can improve their bottom line. It is really needed in our country right now," she said. Employees are doing more for less and paying more of their own way than ever before. She encourages more companies to offer multifaceted financial wellness programs instead of just retirement planning. They should include topics such as money management, debt reduction, estate planning and taxes.

"Money can be very stressful, especially when you are having trouble making ends meet," Anderson said. Because of the financial crisis and mortgage crisis, many people are underemployed, unemployed or working more than one job. "Unexpected [expenses] can really hurt people," she said.

And although Anderson admits her company only deals with people who already are employed, Financial Finesse's financial help line is on the front lines of gauging what is happening with the nation's economy and what people are concerned about.

One trend the company has noticed in 2011 is that people are becoming more proactive about their financial futures again, instead of being reactive like they have been since the financial crash in 2008, she said.

"Having a financial help line or information where employees can get answers is really valuable and can save them hours and hours and hours," Anderson said.

A recent report by Financial Finesse of its employee financial wellness programs found that it is easier to change an employee's financial behavior than it is to change his diet or exercise habits. It also found that 93 percent of employees who participate in a wellness program make one or more changes to their finances immediately. Money management is the biggest change, with employees cutting expenses, saving more and reducing their debts.

In its third quarter 2011 research, Financial Finesse found that more workers are interested in retirement planning. Thirty-four percent of calls to the company's financial help line were related to retirement planning in the third quarter, compared to 25 percent in the second quarter. Ninety-one percent of employees reported contributing to their retirement plan, up from 83 percent in 2010. Only 15 percent said they were on track to replace 80 percent of their income in retirement, down from 17 percent in 2010.

The company found that even though the market continues to be turbulent, employee "financial stress appears to be dissipating, which we believe is due to employees' sustained improvements in financial wellness, which may have been a positive reaction to a 'new normal' which includes lower expectations in employer and government benefits and stock market performance."

Only 21 percent of employees in the Financial Finesse quarterly research reported "high" or "overwhelming" levels of stress and nearly 16 percent indicated they had no financial stress at all.

"Financial stress remains highest among employees age 30-44 and decreases as employees age with the lowest levels of stress reported by pre-retirees age 55 and older," the report found.