The Turnover Tax: How Poor Mental Health Support Drives Attrition
Replacing an employee costs a large fraction of their annual salary once you count recruiting, onboarding, lost productivity, and the ramp to full effectiveness. When mental health is the reason good people leave, that expense is a turnover tax you're paying for a problem you could have treated.
How untreated mental illness pushes people out
An employee struggling with an untreated condition burns out, disengages, takes leave, and eventually leaves - often one of your more capable people, because high performers mask longest and crash hardest. Each exit takes institutional knowledge and team morale with it.
Why "we have benefits" doesn't stop it
Because having benefits and getting treated are different things. If the employee couldn't actually access care when they needed it - if they hit the hidden waitlist - the benefit didn't retain them. What retains people is care that works, fast enough to matter.
Retention as ROI
Frame it plainly for leadership: treating one at-risk high performer before they burn out can pay for a meaningful chunk of the program by itself. Mental health care isn't only a health investment - it's one of the highest-leverage retention tools you have.
CorpCARE helps you keep the people you can't afford to lose - real access to care before burnout becomes a resignation.
Sources
- Boushey, H. & Glynn, S.J. "There Are Significant Business Costs to Replacing Employees." Center for American Progress, 2012. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/there-are-significant-business-costs-to-replacing-employees/
- Mental Health Research Canada. "EAP Access and Use." https://www.mhrc.ca/eapaccess
- Canadian Institute for Health Information. "Desperate for health care: Access challenges have physical, emotional impact on Canadian families." 2025. https://www.cihi.ca/en/desperate-for-health-care-access-challenges-have-physical-emotional-impact-on-canadian-families