How to make the business case for mental health education at work

This blog post is authored by Electives instructor Ryan Johansen.

When you are making a business case to leaders, they often need numbers - not the warm fluffy feel good stories and gut feelings. They need facts and tangible data.

How can you make a business case for investing in mental health awareness in the workplace? Well, a good place to start is this shocking number: stress costs American companies $300B annually. 

Here are a few ways to support your business case around mental health education at work: 

1. Mental health education improves employee retention.

It costs 33% of an employee's salary to replace them. So, if you lose three employees for preventable reasons, you are looking at losing the cost of one full time employee.

2. Mental health education reduces your recruiting costs.

If people are happy, not only do they stay, they tend to tell people about their workplaces. For example, I joined Cisco because they foster a strong culture of mental health in the workplace. And I told everyone how much I love it. 

If three employees refer someone, that alone can save thousands of dollars in recruiting. 

3. Mental health education will increase employee morale, and therefore increase productivity.

Workers miss time due to mental health. If you can make employees happy, they show up and do good work, and your business wins. Absenteeism is a known issue for organizations. Another topic emerging is presenteeism, meaning people who show up physically, but are checked out. A workforce that doesn’t show up and isn’t engaged, costs you dollars.

If you can show a business leader they can make an incredible return on a purchase, it’s a no brainer. Proactive mental health education in the workplace fits this criterion. If you were to spend $2,500 on training, and that saved even one employee making $75,000 that is a $25,000 savings alone. 

So if you think improving your team’s mental health is expensive, think again. Invest in mental health education for your teams!

About the author

Ryan Johansen is one of 150+ instructors on the Electives platform. In 2018, Ryan found himself in a difficult position. He receive the promotion he’d worked hard for, but his old mentality of “work more hours and give it your all” was starting to fail. Ryan was miserable, suffering from panic attacks and questioning his ability. Ryan got help for himself and now leads guided workshops to help people reduce their stress and live a better quality of life.

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