What is the cost of relying on empathy for staff experiencing anxiety?

Is “being nice” enough?

An extremely common leadership response to anxiety, or poor workplace well-being is minimization or avoidance. Another very common response is an empathetic adjustment of expectations. This is natural. In our hearts human beings are good people. We want to be supportive, so we make adjustments for our staff who are experiencing anxiety.

But what’s that costing your business?

Excluding the top 1% of earners, the UK’s national average salary in 2024 was £31,600. To enable a business to generate profit, the gross individual contribution of each employee needs to be between 3x and 5x their salary, depending on industry, to cover all the known and hidden costs. I.e. salary, pension, NI, training, hardware, holiday, IT, accreditation, and more. This 3-5x isn’t necessarily revenue generation, it could be in savings, or support functions that enable operations.

Therefore, using the lower 3x individual contribution, an employee earning an average salary needs to be supporting the generation of about £94,800 per year, or £7,900 every month.

A diagnosis of moderate anxiety can reduce performance by 10–20%, a figure cited throughout organisational psychology literature.

If we take the conservative 10% hit, that means our employee now delivers £7,110 per month. A shortfall of £790 each month.

This gap doesn’t vanish. It lingers for around months, or even years, when employers merely offer empathy without structured intervention. Often escalating to even more significant ill health, and subsequent impact on performance (CIPD, HSE & WHO, all have studies showing this).

This means, that over a 12-month period, your staff’s anxiety could be costing you at least £9,480, before you’ve made any investment in their development. Nearly a third of their annual salary.

To meet this shortfall, the burden shifts to colleagues, increasing pressure, risk, and emotional fatigue across the team. Therefore, the real costs, could be significantly worse.

Why Wellbeing Coaching Isn’t an Expense. It’s a Strategic Investment.

Research consistently shows that wellbeing coaching in cases of moderate anxiety boosts performance by 10–15%. Look at it empirically:

Unmind study: 10% average productivity gain.

HERO study: Employees in wellness coaching programs show about a 10% productivity improvement.

General ROI evidence: Every £1 invested in mental health and anxiety treatment returns approximately £4 in improved health and performance.

CuraLinc peer-reviewed study found a 5.39:1 return, combining healthcare and productivity gains.

Broader wellbeing literature indicates interventions lead to productivity improvements of 10–21%.

While different coaches and organisations have different pricing strategies, I’ve compared these numbers to our own 3 month coaching programme. For £1,800+VAT (or £600+VAT per month), a coaching client will receive 6 x 1:1 sessions over 3-months.

Here’s how it breaks down for our average salaried employee:

Without coaching: £7,900 target, but a 10% drop to £7,110 meaning a £790 revenue loss monthly.

With coaching: 10% improvement on £7,110 = £711 additional value per month.

Net gain vs. investment: Coaching costs £600 per month resulting in a £111 net gain per month, plus faster recovery, less pressure on colleagues, and improved morale. Here’s how it breaks down:

Loss of individual contributions – £790 per month.
Investment in coaching – £600 per month.
Total hit to cashflow – £1,390 per month.
Individual contribution increase thanks to coaching – £711 per month.
Cashflow hit reduced to £679 per month.
Which is £111 per month less than the performance loss, with significantly less impact to the rest of the team.

Next, let’s look at how much you stand to make by making the investment. The Unmind study shows that it typically takes about 3-months of wellbeing coaching to return someone to the a state where they’re able to perform at the required levels.

Considering the £679 per month revenue hit, plus the £1,800 investment in coaching, your outlay is £3,837. Reducing the costs of adjusting expectations by at least £5,643.

Plus over the next 9-months, you’re no longer losing revenue each month. So you start gaining back the £790 per month you would’ve been losing had you not invested. A total of £7,110 back into your coffers.

In 2024, a quarter of employees reported not being able to handle their workload due to poor wellbeing. That means a company of 40 people, will have 10 people not working at the level required for business sustainability. An average year-on-year hit of £94,800 – the equivalent to at least 2 members of staff down.

Or, you can invest in wellbeing coaching for these individuals, at an investment of £18,000+VAT, and make back at least £71,100 a 4:1 ROI.

Essentially, you’re not just offsetting the loss. You’re creating positive economic momentum.