May is Mental Health Awareness Month. But awareness alone won’t fix what HR leaders are seeing.

Nearly 30% of employees are experiencing silent burnout, and 40% of those who have experienced burnout report being physically present but mentally checked out. At the same time, 61% of organizations say mental health leaves are rising, with disability and LOA growth becoming a top leadership concern, according to Spring Health’s latest research. This goes beyond burnout. It’s a growing business risk.

Mental health benefits influence when employees decide to join or stay. But many employees don’t know what support is available, and many never use them. Traditional EAPs often activate at crisis point, missing the everyday stress and disengagement that quietly erode performance and retention, leading to higher-cost challenges down the road.

During Mental Health Awareness Month, the question is simple: How do we move from awareness to measurable reconnection?

Explore how to shift mental health strategy from crisis response to continuous workforce support. You’ll hear how leading organisations are tackling leave growth, strengthening engagement and connecting mental health investment to measurable business outcomes, ensuring wellbeing is positioned as infrastructure, not just intervention.

Discussion points

Burnout as a performance signal: Learn how silent burnout and presenteeism show up in productivity, retention and engagement data, and why they must be treated as business-critical indicators rather than isolated wellbeing issues.
Leave trends as early warning signs: Understand what rising mental health leave reveals about organisational pressure, workforce design and gaps in early intervention.
Proactive vs reactive support models: See where traditional EAP-led approaches fall short and how leading organisations are shifting towards continuous, preventative mental health support.
Linking wellbeing to business outcomes: Discover how to connect mental health investment to measurable impact across performance, retention and workforce stability, strengthening its position as a strategic priority.

Speakers

Riddhima Kowley, Global Head of Wellbeing, Inclusion & Diversity, Cloud and Network Services at Nokia
Michael Susi, Director, Global Wellness at LinkedIn
Hannah Pearsall, Head of Diversity, Inclusion & Wellbeing at Hays
Julie Rust-Bodenmann, Former Global Wellbeing Lead at UBS
Kelsey Witmer, Vice President, Total Rewards & People Operations at Spring Health
[Moderator] Chris Rainey, CEO & Co-Founder at HR Leaders