Employees who rate their mental health as poor or fair miss significantly more work than their peers.
This missed work is estimated to cost the economy
$47.6 billion annually in lost productivity. -Gallup, The Economic Cost of Poor Employee Mental Health
For HR professionals and company leaders, this shows up in real and recognizable ways: patterns of absenteeism, disengaged teams, and a steady drain on retention.
The research points to a clear path forward:
Nearly one in five U.S. employees reports poor or fair mental health. Importantly, those workers miss approximately four times more work than colleagues who report good mental health. At a conservative estimate of $340 per missed day for full-time employees, the costs accumulate fast.
But absenteeism is only part of the picture. Presenteeism, the phenomenon of employees showing up to work while mentally unable to perform at full capacity, often carries a greater cost than missed days.
Workers managing common mental health challenges like anxiety, depression, or chronic stress may be physically present while struggling to focus, make decisions, or collaborate effectively. Because it is invisible, presenteeism rarely gets measured. That does not make it any less real.
For HR leaders, the implication is straightforward. Mental health is not a personal issue that happens to affect the workplace. It is a workplace issue that affects everything: attendance, output, team cohesion, and the ability to retain the people an organization has invested in developing.
The cost of inaction is already built into the numbers.
Recognizing the cost of poor mental health is one thing. Knowing where to intervene is another.
HR professionals are often best positioned to shape conditions that protect employee well-being and build the infrastructure that makes getting help feel accessible rather than stigmatized.
Mental health challenges rarely surface as a clear diagnosis. They show up in subtler ways: a reliable employee who starts missing deadlines, a pattern of short-notice absences that does not quite fit a physical health explanation, or a previously engaged team member who quietly withdraws.
HR teams that track absenteeism data and maintain open lines of communication with managers are better equipped to catch these signals early. The goal is not to diagnose or pry, but to create enough visibility into workforce patterns that struggling employees do not fall through the cracks.
Research from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) found that 35% of workers say their job harms their mental health, and burned-out employees are nearly three times more likely to be actively searching for another job. The causes are consistent across industries and organization sizes.
Common stressors include:
These are not isolated complaints. When stressors like these go unaddressed, they compound over time, driving up absenteeism, accelerating turnover, and quietly eroding the engagement of employees who have not yet left but are no longer fully present.
Managers are often the first to notice when something is wrong, yet often don’t feel equipped to respond. That gap is not a personal failing; it reflects a lack of investment in preparing managers for these conversations.
The U.S. Surgeon General’s Framework for Workplace Mental Health identifies manager training as a foundational element of a mentally healthy organization, noting that how managers respond to struggling employees directly shapes whether those employees seek help or stay silent.
Training does not need to be clinical; it needs to be practical. Managers should know how to:
That last point is what separates a wellness program that exists on paper from one that employees actually use.
Identifying mental health challenges and training managers to respond are necessary steps, but they are not sufficient on their own. Employees also need a place to turn. That is where Employee Assistance Programs become essential.
An Employee Assistance Program gives employees confidential access to professional support outside of their normal management chain. That confidentiality matters enormously.
Many employees who would never bring a mental health concern to their manager or HR department will use an EAP precisely because it operates independently. There is no record in their personnel file. No awkward follow-up conversation with a supervisor. Just access to help.
Core EAP services typically include short-term counseling for anxiety, depression, and stress, crisis support, life coaching, and referrals to longer-term care when needed. The focus is early intervention, addressing problems before they escalate into extended absences or permanent departures.
The business case is well-supported. Research suggests organizations can see between $3 and $10 in return for every dollar invested in EAP services, driven largely by reductions in absenteeism, improved productivity, and lower turnover.
An EAP works best when it is woven into a broader wellness strategy rather than treated as a standalone resource employees only hear about during onboarding.
Visibility drives utilization. When employees understand what an EAP offers and see their organization actively promoting its use, they are more likely to access it when they need it.
Integration can take many forms:
Investing in employee mental health is the right thing to do. It is also a decision that can and should be measured. HR leaders who track the right indicators can build a compelling internal case for sustained investment, and catch early warning signs when support systems are underperforming.
The challenge with measuring mental health ROI is that the benefits show up across multiple dimensions simultaneously. No single metric tells the full story.
That said, there are clear indicators worth tracking consistently:
The numbers will not always move in a straight line. External factors, organizational change, and the natural lag between intervention and outcome all affect results. What matters is establishing a baseline and tracking trends over time.
Ulliance’s Employee Assistance Program is built around the belief that support needs to be accessible, confidential, and genuinely responsive to what employees are dealing with, not just what is easy to offer at scale.
At the core of the Ulliance EAP is face-to-face counseling, giving employees the option of in-person support rather than directing everyone toward digital-only solutions. That distinction matters for employees dealing with serious stress, anxiety, or personal crises, where human connection is often what makes the difference between engaging with help and avoiding it altogether.
For HR leaders and company decision-makers, partnering with Ulliance for EAP services means more than adding a benefit. It means building a reliable infrastructure for employee well-being that is there before problems become crises, and long after a difficult moment has passed.
Mental health support is not a problem that gets solved once. It requires ongoing attention, regular communication, and a willingness to adjust based on what the data shows. Organizations that commit to that process are the ones that see sustained gains, not just a short-term bump following a program launch.
The $47.6 billion cost that opens this article represents a failure of inaction. The good news is that the path to reducing it is well understood, and the tools to do so are available. The remaining variable is organizational will.
What is presenteeism?
Absenteeism is visible, showing up in scheduling, coverage gaps, and payroll. Presenteeism is harder to see: an employee is at their desk or on the call, technically present, but running at a fraction of their capacity because of anxiety, depression, or chronic stress. Because it never triggers an absence record, presenteeism tends to go unmeasured and unaddressed, which is precisely why it compounds.
What is the difference between an EAP and a general wellness program?
Wellness programs are typically broad and preventive, including things like gym subsidies, nutrition resources, and stress management apps. An EAP is more targeted; it provides confidential, professional support when an employee is already struggling. The two work well together, but an EAP is not a substitute for structural changes to workload and management, and a wellness program is not a substitute for access to counseling when someone genuinely needs it.
How can HR leaders make a business case for mental health investment?
Start with the numbers that already exist internally: unplanned absences, turnover rates, and engagement scores. Then connect them to cost. Replacing a single employee typically runs between 50% and 200% of their annual salary. If poor mental health is driving even a fraction of that turnover, the ROI of prevention becomes straightforward to defend. Most organizations already have the data; the work is connecting it to the right conversation.
How do we know if our EAP is actually being used?
Utilization rates are the most direct indicator, but low utilization does not always mean low need. It often means employees do not know what the program covers, do not trust its confidentiality, or have never heard it mentioned outside of onboarding. If your EAP vendor cannot tell you utilization rates by department or overtime, that is worth addressing before drawing conclusions about employee mental health.
What should a manager say when an employee appears to be struggling?
A direct, low-pressure check-in, something like "I've noticed things seem harder lately; I want you to know I'm available if you want to talk," is usually more useful than waiting for a performance issue to force the conversation. Managers do not need to diagnose anything. They need to make it clear that support exists and that asking for it will not be held against the employee.
When you partner with Ulliance, our Life Advisor Consultants are always just a phone call away to teach ways to enhance your work/life balance and increase your happiness. The Ulliance Life Advisor Employee Assistance Program can help employees and employers come closer to a state of total well-being.
Investing in the right EAP or Wellness Program to support your employees will help them and help you. Visit https://ulliance.com/ or call 866-648-8326.
The Ulliance Employee Assistance Program can address the
following issues:
• Stress about work or job performance
• Crisis in the workplace
• Conflict resolution at work or in one’s personal life
• Marital or relationship problems
• Child or elder care concerns
• Financial worries
• Mental health problems
• Alcohol/substance abuse
• Grief
• Interpersonal conflicts
• AND MORE!
References:
2023 Work in America Survey: Workplaces as Engines of Psychological Health and Well-Being; American Psychological Association
https://www.apa.org/pubs/reports/work-in-america/2023-workplace-health-well-being
7 Things to Know About the State of Workplace Mental Health; SHRM
https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/benefits-compensation/what-to-know-about-the-state-of-workplace-mental-health
The Economic Cost of Poor Employee Mental Health; Gallup
https://www.gallup.com/workplace/404174/economic-cost-poor-employee-mental-health.aspx
The Role of Mental Health on Workplace Productivity: A Critical Review of the Literature; NIH/PubMed Central
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9663290/
Workplace Mental Health & Well-Being; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Surgeon General
https://www.hhs.gov/surgeongeneral/reports-and-publications/workplace-well-being/index.html