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Prove benefit value with ROI + VOI.
In today’s business landscape, defined by tightened budgets and growing uncertainty, proving the value of benefits can be challenging.
Health benefit costs are projected to continue rising—by 5.8% in 2025—a problem worrying 90% of U.S. employers. For C-Suite leaders, this means making tough decisions about which benefit programs to adopt or retire, pressuring consultants and internal advocates to work even harder to demonstrate the value of well-being benefits.
But what exactly does this entail?
ROI is key to earning leadership buy-in—but it’s not the whole picture. Mastering a stakeholder-smart value story requires a nuanced approach that considers each leader’s top priorities.
In this article, we offer insights from top benefits experts on blending ROI and VOI to prove the value of mental health benefits, including a framework for tailoring your message to various stakeholders.
Conversations about mental health return on investment (ROI) have shifted in recent years. While ROI is still an essential starting point, especially with CFOs, proponents find it can’t capture the full impact of mental well-being benefits since they function differently from physical health benefits.
Traditional models aim to reduce health care costs by decreasing usage and claims. But with mental health benefits, the goal is to increase utilization and engagement, since better mental well-being consistently leads to higher productivity, decreased absenteeism, lower turnover, and improved physical health.
In other words, the more employees use their mental health benefits, the better their mental health and well-being will be, the more organizations will save on health care costs, and the better they will perform overall.
However, quantifying many of those advantages can be notoriously difficult. This is where introducing value on investment (VOI) can help.
Addressing value on investment (VOI) “gives us permission to tell the whole story,” says Deb Smolensky, CWP, national practice leader of vitality and well-being solutions at NFP. “It’s not just a mental health benefit—it is a business strategy, because we use our brains to do work.”
VOI can help enhance ROI by taking a holistic approach to a broader range of value dimensions to guide your conversations with departmental leaders.
For example, Modern Health’s guide, Beyond ROI: A Practical Guide to Demonstrating the Value of Mental Health Benefits, offers a simple way to assess benefit value, covering financial impact, clinical outcomes, access to care, and more.
“If your audience is your CFO, then it’s going to be, ‘What’s my return? What’s my expense?” says Mark Bukowski, senior director of North America Health and Benefits Consulting at WTW.
The Office of Finance needs definitive data that a benefit will be worth the financial cost, whether that’s in ROI from health care claims savings, absenteeism, or turnover expenses.
For example, mental health accounts for almost 10% of all work absences due to sickness, providing a clear opportunity for savings. Use internal data to show that, for example, “For every 1% drop in absenteeism, we save $X.”
→ Watch on demand: “From Dollars to Outcomes: A Framework for Proving Benefit Value,” featuring leading consultants from NFP, WTW, and Mercer.
Human Resources looks more at how a benefit will affect employees, both individually and as a whole. VOI for this audience hinges on people metrics, such as engagement, retention, and burnout data. Consider, too, how the benefit will provide equitable access and align with company culture.
Another growing area of concern for HR is disability, says Peter Rutigliano, U.S. behavioral health practice lead at Mercer. “What we’re starting to see is a very big trend where people are going out on short-term and long-term disability, specifically for mental health needs,” he adds.
In fact, over 50% of employees with a disability cite mental health (such as depression, anxiety, OCD, etc.) as their primary disability. If this is a concern for your audience, be sure to demonstrate how mental health can impact their organization’s disability rates.
With Operations, focus on productivity, workflow efficiency, and safety incidents, showing how potential savings in these areas far outweigh the cost of the benefit.
For example, while speaking with a Fortune 500 company, Bukowski discovered they spent tens of millions yearly on safety measures. He noted that when employees are distracted or under stress, safety risks rise, making mental health support a vital part of protecting both people and operations.
Comparing the cost of the benefit to the company’s annual safety expenses helped Bukowski reduce stakeholders’ aversion to premium pricing. The key, he says, is to frame the benefit “as a strategic initiative for business. And that’s where we get buy-in.”
In addition to the issues above, CEOs keep growth and brand top of mind. In your VOI conversation, highlight how the benefit can enhance brand reputation and employer of choice status while supporting the organization’s growth strategy.
A company’s brand is shaped not just by customer perception but also by employee sentiment. Offering premium mental health benefits can help make employees feel valued and, in turn, foster loyalty.
“When the going gets tough, they [employees] stay with that organization because they believe in the organization and they care about that organization,” says Rutigliano. “It’s not just the job anymore. And I think that really carries some weight also with the CEO.”
Creating a compelling value story is more than gathering essential data. To ensure your presentation leaves a significant impact, consider the steps below.
Before presenting your case, make sure you understand the KPIs (key performance indicators) that matter most to the organization. This will guide how you frame ROI and build on it.
“Ask them what’s important to their leadership so you can weave that into the overall measurement approach to what dictates success or non-success,” says Bukowski.
Let the priorities you took time to discover inform every data point and anecdote you share in your value story—and be selective about what you include. When speaking with busy, price-conscious leaders, every word and minute matters. A particular point or statistic may sound compelling to you, but if it doesn’t align with your audience’s goals, they may tune it out.
Avoid over-engineering your data or cluttering your message with complex jargon and unnecessary details. Instead, use clear, straightforward metrics and simple anecdotes to explain the benefit’s ROI and overall value story.
Rutigliano cautions against overpromising with data. He has seen consultants cite savings of $4 or even $10 for every $1 spent on mental health benefits. But “we need to be a lot more conservative,” he says, because clients will inevitably have "a "moment where they’re going to say, ‘Wait a minute. Where’s my 10x savings?’”
In reality, recent Modern Health research estimates that companies can save an average of $2.39 in health care costs alone for every $1 invested—a more realistic figure to share with stakeholders.
Instead of reserving value conversations for budget season or open enrollment, Smolensky recommends touching on the topic all year round. Look for opportunities to bring up mental health in relation to news events, mental health awareness days, or conversations surrounding DEI initiatives, safety, and organizational change.
“The hook needs to be out all the time,” she says. “And it can be out all the time because the world is so complex, and the work, as we just said, is so overwhelming at times. So we are having proactive conversations, subtly tying anything that’s going on to mental health.”
Assessing and demonstrating the value of a mental health benefit may be more challenging in today’s budget-sensitive environment, but it’s not impossible. Remember that the strongest business cases start with knowing one’s audience and blending financial ROI with human-centered VOI.
To start discussing VOI across the C-Suite, explore this structured, repeatable framework. With this tool, you’ll access ready-made metrics and role-specific talking points, so you can confidently prepare for any stakeholder meeting.
