Benefits can close the gap between financial and mental wellness

• Key insight: Learn why linking financial wellness to mental-health benefits reduces burnout drivers.
• What's at stake: Failing to act risks higher turnover, lost productivity and escalating healthcare costs.
• Supporting data: Modern Health reports $2.39 ROI per dollar invested, largely from mental-health management.
  Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review

Financial security is important, but it doesn't have to come at the expense of employees' mental well-being. By supporting both of these areas with the right benefits and a healthy culture, organizations can help workers achieve the former without giving up the latter. 

A survey from mental wellness platform Modern Health found 79% of younger employees sacrifice their mental health to meet job demands. While nearly 70% of Gen Z and millennials said they were putting off leaving a toxic work environment due to economic concerns, 52% of respondents said they have considered quitting to avoid further mental stress. One way or the other, employers face issues with presenteeism, productivity loss and turnover. 

Modern Health's research also found that financial anxiety was causing many people to delay using benefits such as time off and mental health resources — two pivotal ways to recharge and avoid burnout. Employees need benefits that support their mental and financial wellness, and the ability to use them guilt-free. 

"There's a lot of stress and anxiety associated with money," says Alison Borland, Modern Health's chief people and strategy officer. "Just putting in programs and not addressing the problems that are driving burnout, stress and anxiety is not enough."

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Closing financial and mental wellness gaps

To address people's tendency to neglect one area of wellness for another, benefit leaders need to evaluate whether they offer access to comprehensive wellness support that helps employees connect the dots, Borland says. 

"Historically, [we've come] at financial well-being from a very transactional-number space, like a spreadsheet to help you build a budget or projections about your 401(k) — just save more and everything will be OK," she says. "None of that addresses the root cause around how you're feeling about it and the stress associated with it."

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Modern Health offers a whole-person approach that ranges from preventative to acute care. Its services cover a wide range of needs including financial coaching, which can help people better manage their money stress. 

From a company-culture perspective, the survey revealed an alarming view of mental health resources: 71% of survey respondents said that they think their employer's mental health programs exist to offset a toxic workplace culture, indicating that the negative environment remains the same, Borland says. 

"The programs are really important, but if you place them into a toxic culture and you don't address the root cause, it's going to be difficult for your employees to get to a better place," she says. "Sixty-one percent said their company's culture is flawed, and 53% say their employer will encourage self care, yet also make it nearly impossible to do it."

To improve the cultural mindset in a workplace, Borland recommends leaders start more conversations about the commonness of mental and financial stress, and remind employees of the resources that are there to help with both. She encourages leaders to share their own stories, including any company benefits they used for support, and to invite employees to do the same through the company intranet or designated Slack channels. 

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The ROI of improved wellness

Employers that help employees manage overall mental health see their costs go down, and their retention and productivity rise. Modern Health reports that for every dollar invested in its services, there is an ROI of $2.39 based on reduced healthcare costs, 60% of which comes from helping employees manage moderate mental health needs.  

When a company combines its offerings with a culture that fosters employee wellness, the results become qualitative as well, Borland says. 

"You're going to have a workforce that shows up every day ready to go, ready to collaborate, ready to act with urgency," she says. "That's all related to everyone having the resilience and the energy to show up and perform in that way."