Increasing employee retention through mental health benefits – here’s how

In order to attract and retain the best talent on the market, many companies are looking for the best employee retention strategies. Identifying the most important success factors for retaining employees in the long term is the number one challenge for many companies.

One of the key factors influencing employee retention is their satisfaction. In turn, support measures for mental health have a significant influence on this. But what does that look like in detail? In the following article, we take a closer look at the connection between mental health and employee retention.

Why employee retention is important

1. Fluctuation costs: High fluctuation is expensive. According to studies, between 15.000€ and 43.000€ [1,2]. Finding, selecting and training new employees costs time and resources.

2. Productivity: Productivity is also lost as existing employees have already reached their full capacity.

3. Employer branding: Poor employee retention also affects the company’s image and can make it more difficult to attract talent.

4. Corporate culture. With a constant “in and out”, it is more difficult to establish togetherness and a positive corporate culture. This in turn has an impact on satisfaction and productivity,

If employees feel valued and supported, they are more willing to do more, contribute to the company and remain “loyal” to their employer. This has a positive effect on the company’s success.

If managers and HR managers are trained or coached on relevant topics relating to mental health, they can better recognize signs of dissatisfied employees and how to approach them. A partner for mental health solutions, such as Likeminded, can provide appropriate training, coaching and upskilling opportunities.

How to measure employee retention

There are a few key metrics that companies can use to measure employee retention:

• Turnover rate: the percentage of employees who leave a company within a certain period of time.

• Retention rate: This is the percentage of employees who stay with a company over a certain period of time. A high retention rate is generally a positive sign.

• Time to fill: The length of time it takes to fill a vacancy.

• Employee engagement: Measuring employee engagement can give an indication of how satisfied and committed employees are to their work and the company.

Recording the status quo of employee’s mental health and satisfaction can be an important indicator of employee retention. Measures can also be derived from such survey in order to (further) strengthen retention.

92% of users describe a positive influence of Likeminded on their well-being.

Likeminded offers its partners the opportunity to measure the impact of mental health measures on employee satisfaction and retention.

5 typical reasons for low employee retention and how mental health benefits can help

1. Lack of opportunities for growth and development: Employees want to learn and grow in their roles
   → How mental health benefits can help: Individual coaching can be used to support the personal development of employees and in particular top talent and aspiring leaders.

2. Poor management: Employees want to feel supported and valued by their superiors. If this is not the case, they may become less or no longer engaged or even look for another job.
   → How mental health benefits can help: Upskilling leaders in skills such as appreciative communication or active listening can prevent this.
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3. Lack of work-life balance: A lack of ability to draw boundaries between work and private life and to prioritize effectively leads to a poor work-life balance and dissatisfaction for many employees.
   → How mental health benefits can help: These skills can be trained in one-to-one sessions with coaches but also in exchange groups, group workshops or self-guided exercises. ‍

4. Mental problems: Dissatisfied employees have a higher risk of leaving the company. Both private and professional issues can play a role here.
   → How mental health benefits can help: Easy access to coaches, psychologists and therapists can help employees overcome crises and problems and continuously improve their mental well-being.

5. Poor corporate culture: A poor corporate culture can lead to problems not being addressed openly, with employees “suffering in silence” or resigning internally.
   → How mental health benefits can help: Courses and workshops on topics such as psychological safety and positive corporate culture can help to make lasting changes to the culture within the company.

Conclusion: What role do mental wellbeing benefits play in employee retention?

Mental health and wellbeing benefits can play an important role in employee retention. If a company promotes the mental wellbeing of its employees, it can help to reduce absenteeism, increase productivity and improve overall job satisfaction.

Mental health services from providers like Likeminded can look like this:

• Providing mental health resources so that knowledge can be built and self-help can be learned

• Offering training, workshops and other upskilling opportunities to learn important skills, improve wellbeing and better support employees

• Coaching services to promote personal development

• Prevention services to support mental wellbeing

• Crises intervention services to overcome mental health issues e.g. access to therapists

• Regularly recording the status quo with regards to mental health and employee satisfaction through surveys and deriving relevant measures

• Appropriate initiatives for organizational development and improvement of corporate culture