By Stephen Sokoler, Forbes Councils Member. Originally published for Forbes Business Council on Jan 15, 2026, 09:30am EST
Companies are spending more than ever on digital mental health solutions, but by waiting until employees are already struggling, addressing problems rather than preventing them.
I believe the deeper issue isn’t a lack of concern or investment. It’s that most corporate mental health systems are designed to minimize liability and simplify purchasing. But imagine a $50 billion-plus industry built on showing up too late. That’s how I see the state of corporate mental health today; too many companies believe they’re protected, when in fact they’re quietly absorbing the steepest costs of delayed care.
Here are some reasons why many of the systems companies purchase are structurally designed to fail—and what to look for instead.
The Illusion Of Coverage And Compounding Costs Of Delay
I’ve outlined in past articles the estimated millions in lost productivity each year attributed to things like depression and anxiety, as well as the low engagement with EAPs in general. A 2024 benchmark found average EAP utilization at 5.5% while other analyses place it between 2% and 8%.
In my experience, even when employees do use these services, it’s typically as a last resort—when burnout, anxiety or crisis has already taken hold. Employees may often wait months or even years before seeking formal support, meaning employers are absorbing preventable productivity loss long before the first session ever occurs.
That timing problem is the real failure. By design, EAPs reward inaction: Nothing happens until someone self-identifies, schedules an appointment and asks for help.
So why does this model persist? Because reactive EAPs are easy to buy, easy to explain to boards and easy to defend legally. Coverage exists, utilization is optional and responsibility sits with the employee. Proactive systems, by contrast, require companies to rethink ownership, culture and accountability—harder work than renewing a familiar contract.
What makes these costs so dangerous is that most of them accumulate invisibly—through presenteeism, missed deadlines, strained teams.
The False Promise Of Digital EAPs
It can be useful to closely analyze your digital EAP, for I find that many modern interfaces still preserve the same old model: employees must self-identify, self-refer and self-motivate—usually when already in distress.
Features like chatbots or AI matching may improve optics but not outcomes. Without proactive triggers—like outreach when risk indicators surface or check-ins after life events—technology merely delays the inevitable escalation.
Reactive EAPs can lull leaders into a false sense of security, showing impressive dashboards while most issues remain invisible until they become crises. Digital doesn’t mean proactive. It just means you get the bad news faster.
That said, true proactive care is not surveillance. It doesn’t diagnose employees in the background or monitor individuals. Instead, you should look for ways to create earlier, lower-stakes moments that can help support employees before anyone ever has to raise their hand in crisis.
In practice, this looks less like one-off interventions and more continuous: lightweight check-ins embedded into daily workflows, outreach following meaningful life events and mental health moments built into how teams already operate.
The key is to find ways to make care continuous rather than conditional. This way, mental health transforms from a compliance topic into a performance strategy.
The Bottom Line
It’s easy to equate availability with impact. But reactive digital EAPs—no matter how sleek—are the corporate equivalent of calling the fire department after the building’s already half-burned, then celebrating because only 3% of rooms caught fire.
Proactive mental health systems flip the equation: prevention first, crisis rarely. For HR leaders and CFOs alike, that’s not just compassion—it’s cost control.
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