Key Takeaways from our Webinar "The Hidden ROI of Mental Health Benefits"
In our recent SHRM-Certified Webinar (watch the on-demand version here), we explored the hard truth behind burnout’s impact on engagement, productivity, and retention. Focusing on how HR leaders can turn wellbeing into measurable ROI. This blog recaps the key takeaways and actionable insights from that session.
With roughly 1 in 4 employees managing a mental health condition and nearly 60% reporting burnout, the business effects are clear: exhaustion, cynicism, reduced effectiveness, disengagement, absenteeism, presenteeism, conflict, and higher error rates. Clinically, burnout can escalate into sleep disruption, anxiety, and physical health decline which drives up healthcare costs.
The bottom line? Burned-out employees take more sick days, avoid goal-setting conversations, and are 2.6× more likely to leave. That translates to higher replacement costs, lost ramp-up time, knowledge drain, and morale hits.
This isn’t just an HR issue, it’s a company-wide risk to productivity, budgets, and retention. In this recap, we’ll revisit how our webinar broke down those challenges into CFO-ready numbers and shared a framework for building and funding a modern, high-utilization mental health program.
Why Traditional EAPs Aren’t Enough (Even If You Have One)
EAPs serve important functions like crisis response, compliance, and referrals.
However these three common gaps limit ROI:
- Low utilization (often under 5%).
- Long wait times (weeks, which increases problem severity and downstream costs).
- Short caps on counseling sessions (3–5), which rarely cover full care needs.
Most importantly, prevention is missing. Without proactive tools and early support, issues escalate to crises, claims, and turnover.
Organizations that see 8–11x higher utilization than their EAPs typically deliver the following to their employees:
- Proactive support (skill-building, psychoeducation, stress tools before crisis)
- Whole-person scope (mental, physical, financial, social, career, purpose)
- Personalization & choice (modality, topic, provider fit; therapy + webinars + coaching + AI companions)
- Fast access (same- or next-day)
- Visibility without stigma (easy to find, easy to use, manager-supported, privacy-assured)
Long story short, when you replace a checkbox EAP with proactive, personalized, and fast-access support that employees actually use, mental health shifts from a sunk cost to a measurable ROI engine. One that if managed and measured properly can result in improving retention, productivity, and overall healthcare spend.
How to Build a CFO-Backed ROI Story
Now that we’ve outlined the risks (burnout-driven absenteeism, turnover, and claims), and the rewards of a modern, high-utilization mental health program, the next hurdle is getting budget approval and C-suite buy-in. It’s all about how you turn those insights into numbers. Aligning your case to what finance optimizes for which are often cost, impact, and risk. Do that, and preventive mental health shifts from a “nice to have” to a financially necessary investment your CFO can endorse, even in the ever so common cost-cutting cycles.
Step 1: Align to CFO Priorities
Everything finance cares about rolls into three buckets:
- Cost: Current spend vs. savings.
- Impact: Retention, engagement, absenteeism, output.
- Risk: Claims, regulatory, litigation, and worst-case scenarios (e.g., unmanaged crises).
If you’re unsure which bucket matters most right now, ask. Then tailor the ROI story accordingly.
Step 2: Set Baselines Before You Launch (or Reset)
Track these six metrics at minimum:
- Absenteeism: Days (and cost) per quarter/year.
- Healthcare costs: Break out behavioral health where possible to see signal
- Presenteeism/engagement: Use an anonymous third-party pulse surveys
- Retention/turnover: Rate and counts, plus turnover cost per role
- Productivity: Role-specific outputs (story points, tickets closed, units made, etc.)
- Manager time: Hours/month spent on conflict/crisis and employee support
Step 3: Model the Savings (Simple Example)
Assume a program costs $40,000/year for 700 employees.
Baselines (Year 0):
- Absenteeism cost/day (blended): $215
- Absenteeism days last year: 125 → $26,875
- Average salary: $56,000
- Turnover last year: 25 employees → $1.4M (at 1.0× salary; use 1.0–1.5× where appropriate)
- Behavioral health claims: 210 at $150 each → $31,500
Improvements (Year 1):
- Retention: 4 fewer departures → $224,000 saved (4 × $56,000)
- Absenteeism: 30% reduction → 38 fewer days × $215 → $8,170
- Manager capacity: 10 managers × 5 hrs/mo × 12 mo × $50/hr → $30,000
- Claims: 25% reduction → 53 fewer × $150 → $7,950
Total savings: $270,120
Net ROI: $270,120 − $40,000 (program cost) = $230,120 net benefit
Tip: When leadership is in “cost-cutting mode,” show how cutting preventive mental health increases total cost via turnover, claims, and lost productivity.
Download the slides, and follow along with CEO Amelia Wilcox as she explains the steps above by queuing into 39:00 here.
Conclusion:
Securing leadership buy-in for mental health requires both the sharp edge of data and the weight of human experience. When HR leaders frame mental health as a lever for cost, impact, and risk, prevention becomes not just a benefit but a business necessity. And when organizations commit to both measurement and culture, they move beyond “programs” and build workforces that are truly resilient.
