Sleep-deprived staff and those with low mood could cost you thousands. Here’s how to help them

Want protection from presenteeism? For every employee using Unmind to support their mood or sleep, your organisation could unlock estimated annual savings of up to £5,049 a year.

Fresh out the lab: our new report reveals that presenteeism (that is, lost productivity due to mental ill-health) could cost companies between £3,900 and £5,000 per employee every year. 

But you can combat it.

In two recent randomised control trials (RCTs), we teamed up with the University of Sussex to assess the impact of Unmind platform content designed, respectively, tackle depressive symptoms and poor sleep.

But this work also laid bare how businesses might be losing vast amounts of cash, if they ignore their staff’s mental wellbeing.

The results were pretty eye-popping.

• In the low mood study, presenteeism fell by 12.3%. This equates to a weekly saving of £75.22.
• For poor sleepers, presenteeism dropped by 16.5% – a weekly saving of £97.10.
• This means, stretched across a year, using Unmind to tackle low mood saves £3,912 per employee. The annual saving for poor sleep is even greater: £5,049 a head.

Real cultural change 

Ask those at the sharp end of workplace wellbeing, and they’ll tell you: mental health is not a perk, it’s a strategy for business performance. 

As our CEO, Dr. Nick Taylor, explains:

“Shortfalls in productivity from employees struggling with their mental health can have a serious financial impact on businesses – let alone on the wellbeing of individuals themselves. 

“While staff wellbeing should be the top priority for any business, viewing this through a financial lens can help bosses understand that workplace wellbeing can go beyond the scope of the individual.

“It’s about driving real cultural change around workplace wellbeing.”

It’s clear: poor mental health can spark sky-high costs for companies. Our findings show it. And they also suggest Unmind can help ease this financial burden. How? By proactively supporting employee wellbeing itself. 

The upshot? Happier, better rested, more productive staff. A heady mix of human altruism and smart economics.

Learn more

You can find the full report (including a breakdown of the methodology, plus references) here, To find out more about Unmind’s research and Science team, visit unmind.com/science, or book a chat with one of our workplace wellbeing experts.