The business case for supporting mental health at work.
Poor mental health already costs UK employers tens of billions every year — and the research shows that support pays for itself. Here is the evidence, and how MIKE Circle helps organisations offer it well.
Presenteeism is the single largest cost — not absence.
People showing up but unable to work at capacity costs UK employers more than sickness absence and staff turnover combined. Deloitte's 2024 breakdown of the £51bn annual total:
On top of that £51bn, Deloitte estimates a further £8bn a year is lost to the impact of parents' concern about their children's mental health on their own work.
Source: Deloitte, "Mental health and employers: the case for investment" (2024). The £51bn figure is down from £55bn in 2021 but still up from £45bn in 2019.
Support pays for itself — on average £4.70 back per £1 spent.
Deloitte's research shows the return varies significantly by the type of intervention. Prevention consistently outperforms reacting after the fact.
Source: Deloitte, "Mental health and employers" (2024). Figures cited are independent third-party UK research on workplace mental health support in general — they describe the category, not a specific MIKE outcome claim.
What does this cost your organisation?
The £51bn figure is a national total. Here's the same maths applied to a team your size, using the average cost per UK employee.
estimated cost of poor mental health to a team this size, at the UK average of £1,480 per employee per year (Deloitte's £51bn ÷ 34.47m people in employment, ONS).
On a £2,500/year spend, at Deloitte's average £4.70 return per £1 invested in workplace mental health support.
Illustrative maths from published averages, not a quote or a guarantee — every organisation is different. Sources: Deloitte, "Mental health and employers" (2024); ONS UK Labour Market, employment total for people aged 16+, April–June 2026 (34.47 million).
Sickness absence is at a 15-year high.
Average sickness-absence days per employee per year — the highest in over 15 years.
Of long-term absence cases are caused by mental ill health — the single leading cause.
Of organisations reported stress-related absence among their staff in the last year.
Source: CIPD, "Health and Wellbeing at Work" survey (2025). CIPD separately estimates a total presenteeism + absenteeism + turnover cost of £42–45bn a year — a different methodology to Deloitte's £51bn figure, in the same order of magnitude.
Support your people, without seeing their private conversations.
MIKE Circle lets an organisation offer MIKE to its people and see participation and general wellbeing signals — while every individual's MIKE conversations, Diary entries and profile stay private unless they personally choose to share something.
Acme Ltd
MIKE Circle · Admin view (HR)Admins never see individual conversations, Diary entries or profile data — only participation, and what each person chooses to share.
Illustrative example of a MIKE Circle admin view — names, departments and figures are fictional, not a real organisation's data.
Private by default
Conversations and Diary entries stay private unless the individual chooses to share.
Consent-led, always
Nothing is visible to an organisation without the individual's explicit permission.
Safety never paywalled
Urgent and crisis-support routes are always free, for every user.
Built around trust
Designed with permission, transparency and minimum-necessary data use throughout.
Let's talk about what your people need.
How MIKE Circle is priced
- Priced per person, per month — not a flat organisation fee
- Scales with your team size, with volume pricing for larger organisations
- No setup cost to start a conversation with us
- Every individual keeps free access to safety and crisis support, regardless of your plan
Exact figures are still being finalised ahead of launch, so we confirm current pricing directly with each organisation rather than publishing a rate card here.