Employees are asking for quality mental health benefits and say they’re willing to stay or leave based on the availability of those benefits. 73% of employees and 81% of managers indicated they’d be more likely to stay at a company that offered high-quality mental health benefits. Yet, many employers are still missing the mark with EAPs that fail to engage employees and yield low adoption rates.

This article explores how Lyft, a Modern Health customer, increased benefit utilization and employee engagement by offering personalized mental health benefits that fit the needs of its diverse workforce. 

Read on to discover how mental health benefits can also support your employees and help boost business ROI.

How Usability and Customer Experience Result in Higher Engagement Rates

Although one in three adults experiences anxiety or depression, over 115 million Americans live in an area with a shortage of licensed clinical therapists. Furthermore, only 55% of psychiatrists accept insurance compared to 89% of other health professionals. As employees seek companies that better meet their needs, equitable mental health benefits will be vital in attracting and hiring talent, essential for employee retention, and helpful in generating increased workforce productivity and efficiency.

Many providers over-emphasize direct financial savings related to mental health benefits to set benchmarks for value. However, this focus fails to address barriers to care that traditional EAPs fail to overcome. 

By analyzing the value of investment (VOI) in mental health benefits, Modern Health focuses on the effectiveness of benefits to achieve higher engagement rates with improved accessibility and speed to services, resulting in improved well-being. These case studies highlight the successes of access to care for employees in organizations that partner with Modern Health.

Dropbox Partners With Modern Health

When the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic forced many companies to transition to remote operations, Dropbox used the opportunity to adopt a permanent virtual-first workforce worldwide. To prioritize employee well-being during this dramatic change, Dropbox searched for a benefits solution to help global employees cope with the new landscape of remote work and manage stress related to world events. Modern Health was best equipped to deliver on Dropbox's primary goals. 

Dropbox employees have received tremendous value from Modern Health since its launch. Of all eligible employees, 49% have registered (against an industry average of 25%), and 40% have engaged with the application. Dropbox employees expressed appreciation for accessible one-on-one coaching or therapy and Modern Health's live video-based group therapy experiences, called Circles. Of the Dropbox population seeking coaching or therapy, 91% agree that the care has improved their well-being. 

Lyft Partners With Modern Health

In mid-2019, leading transportation platform, Lyft, searched for a new mental health solution to support its guiding values, including "be yourself" and "uplift others." By partnering with Modern Health, Lyft expanded access to care, created more sustainable costs, and delivered a unified global experience to better meet international team members' needs.

Upon rolling out Modern Health benefits to employees, Lyft saw a striking increase in engagement. While only 14% of Lyft's workforce and dependents engaged with Lyft's previous mental health solution, 45% of Lyft's workforce and dependents actively engage with Modern Health, and an incredible 61% are registered. Lyft praised Modern Health's ability to support employees through traumatic events and global crises through community Circles related to current events and disparities affecting marginalized populations.

The Advantages of Better Utilization of Mental Health Benefits

Modern Health research reveals that fewer than one in three employees who enrolled in mental health benefits, typically employee assistance programs (EAPs), feel those programs actually met their needs. Reasons for low engagement include irrelevant services, limited professional providers (even in large networks), and cost barriers. As a result, employees experience massive accessibility issues, with 35% of employees waiting at least three months to get an in-person appointment with a mental health care specialist. 

When employer-sponsored benefits fail to meet employee needs, organizations suffer from various costs related to untreated mental health conditions in the workplace. For instance, employees with untreated depression experience a 35% reduction in productivity, contributing to an average of 31.4 missed days per year and another 27.9 days lost to unproductivity. These losses happen before employers face the direct and indirect costs of turnover. 

When employers calculate the ROI of mental health benefits on economic ROI and value (like improved employee retention, productivity, equity, performance, and sense of belonging), the following advantages of improved utilization can be recognized. Lyft's increased adoption rate highlights these benefits as well. 

Health Care Cost Savings

Accessible and effective mental health care can help employers recognize savings in avoided company health care costs due to employee recovery and avoided costs due to prevention of symptoms through modalities of care that promote mental wellness. 

With Modern Health's pricing model, Lyft reduced costs by more than 55% year-over-year and set accurate budgets. 

Reduced Stress

Employee care preferences vary widely. In fact, 44% of Modern Health members selected one-to-one care as their preferred mode of care. By offering accessible care designed to support mental well-being in various modalities, employers can recognize higher employee engagement, leading to lower stress levels in the workplace. 

Modern Health's comprehensive mental health offering has helped Lyft team members improve their clinical well-being with a 61% clinical improvement or recovery rate. Users are happy with the benefit, leaving an aggregate of 76 NPS. 

Improved Morale

In many cases, employers with a global workforce fail to provide care modules that provide equitable access to all employees. Beliefs and values influence how we think, speak, behave, and interact. By providing culturally centered support that incorporates different employee perspectives, languages, and cultural backgrounds, employers can provide equitable support to all employees, leading to an improved sense of belonging across the workforce. 

Lyft's Senior Manager of Benefits and Mobility, Tanner Brunsdale, noted: "After working with Modern Health, we learned many team members hadn't felt included in the therapy-only offering. For some global team members in particular, for whom therapy carries a heavy stigma, coaching and the self-guided resources available through Modern Health were an instant draw."

How Lyft Improved Levels of Depression and Anxiety With Employee Utilization of Mental Health Benefits

Lyft partnered with Modern Health to provide increased access to mental health care and a unified global experience for employees. By offering alternatives to one-on-one therapy, Lyft saw skyrocketing engagement from 14% with the previous solution to 45% engagement with Modern Health. 

More importantly, this participation yielded real clinical results for employees. Sixty-one percent of members who indicated elevated levels of depression and anxiety experienced clinical improvement or recovery with as little as four one-on-one visits with a therapist or coach.

Why Clinical Improvement Matters

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 12 billion working days are lost every year to depression and anxiety alone, costing the global economy $1 trillion each year, predominantly from reduced productivity. Although there are known, effective treatments for mental disorders, more than 75% of people in low- and middle-income countries receive no treatment.

Symptoms of depression in the workplace include:

• Absenteeism
• Tardiness
• Difficulty focusing
• Lack of motivation
• Missed deadlines
• Substance use

By providing benefits that support the needs of all employees, employers can eliminate these related costs.

How Decreasing Employee Depression and Anxiety Cuts Health Care Costs

Beyond the costs of lost productivity in the workplace, health care costs related to mental health concerns have skyrocketed. Spending on mental health treatment and services reached $225 billion in 2019. Individuals with major depression can spend an average of $10,836 yearly on health costs. 

When these costs are absorbed through employer-sponsored benefits, employers experience a poor ROI. Yet, overall health care costs improve when employees have equitable access to care and achieve improved mental well-being. 

How Engagement Drives Results 

Employee benefits that go unused because of roadblocks to care offer little value to employers or employees. When employers meet the needs of their employees with globally accessible benefits with multiple modalities of care, employees are more likely to engage. With this engagement comes improved results that boost workplace satisfaction and reduce turnover.

Our case studies note companies with similar goals that met astounding results due to expanded access to mental health care through multiple modules of care, culturally centered options, and global accessibility. As a result, Lyft recognized a 45% global engagement rate with 61% clinical improvement or recovery for members with elevated depression and anxiety. Similarly, Dropbox noted a 40% engagement rate, with 91% of employees in agreement that the provided care has improved well-being.

Modern Health Helps Drive Employee Utilization of Benefits for Improved ROI

To navigate the demands of the modern workplace, employers need to provide mental health benefits that ensure employees are receiving the high quality support they need. To learn how your organization can meet the needs of your evolving workforce, contact one of our mental health experts today.

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