The Link Between Burnout and Your Employee Benefits Plan

Can employee benefits help prevent burnout? Yes, they absolutely can.

Burnout is the emotional and physical toll of working without enough support, time to recover, or a sense of balance. Over time, it leads to exhaustion, disengagement, and high turnover.

A strong employee benefits plan can help prevent burnout. When your benefits support mental health, offer flexibility, and give employees real tools to manage stress, they create a healthier, more resilient workforce.

Learn about the signs of burnout, how your group benefits plan plays a role, and what you can do to change the outcome.

What Burnout Actually Looks Like

Burnout isn’t always dramatic. Sometimes, it shows up quietly.

• Fatima, an accounts administrator at a small town office, has started missing deadlines because she’s constantly covering for a short-staffed team and is struggling to sleep at night. Her benefits plan offers three counselling sessions a year, but she doesn’t know how to access them, and no one’s mentioned it since orientation.
• Greg, a utilities supervisor, feels trapped. He’s caring for his aging parents and juggling shift work. His stress is through the roof, but he doesn’t think counselling is for him. He thinks his EAP offers caregiver resources and financial coaching, but doesn’t know who to ask for what he needs.
• Anika, a department manager, is trying to support a team member who’s clearly struggling with a medical issue. She wants to help, but is terrified she’ll say the wrong thing. Anika has heard that employee medical issues should be private, and she doesn’t know how to proceed. She’s never been trained to have these conversations and isn’t sure if there’s a referral process to get external support. So, she says nothing, the problem worsens, and she starts to dread going into work. 

These aren’t unusual cases. They’re common, happening right now in your workplace, costing time, energy, and money.

Burnout Isn’t Just About Workload

We tend to think burnout means someone’s working too many hours, but that’s only part of the story. Often, the lack of meaningful support pushes people over the edge.  It builds when employees:

• Feel alone in their struggles
• Don’t know where to turn for help
• Face personal pressures without flexibility in their jobs
• See no sign that their organization recognizes the issue

And here’s the hard truth: once employee mental health is compromised, a vacation won’t fix it. A couple of “mental health days” won’t either. Without the proper support, the cycle just resets.

According toTELUS Health, 42% of Canadian workers are burnt out and report feeling exhausted by the end of each work day. Many aren’t getting help because the system around them doesn’t make it easy.

Where Your Employee Benefits Plan Fits In

Think of your employee benefits plan as part of your operational toolkit. It’s not just for emergencies or checkups; it directly reflects how your organization supports its people.

A strong benefits plan doesn’t solve burnout on its own, but a weak or outdated plan can absolutely make it worse.

The Wrong Benefit Plans Can:

• Limit access to real help (e.g., only covering three sessions/year)
• Rely on employees to “figure it out” themselves
• Ignore non-counselling supports like financial stress or caregiver strain
• Confuse or overwhelm staff with outdated or confusing information

The Right Benefit Plans Can:

• Offer timely, confidential access to licensed professionals
• Include support for diverse needs: legal, financial, parenting, elder care
• Communicate clearly, often, and accessibly
• Train managers to recognize signs early and act appropriately

Here’s What Realistic, Practical Support Looks Like

This isn’t about adding flashy perks or rolling out an expensive one-size-fits-all wellness challenge. The goal is to make support real and reachable.

Example 1:

A rural municipality in Alberta added EAP access via text-based counselling. Staff who didn’t feel comfortable making phone calls, especially younger employees, began using it within weeks. Usage rates jumped significantly, and absenteeism dropped the following quarter.

Example 2:

A public works department integrated financial coaching into its EAP. Workers under wage freeze pressure were stressed about debt and rising living costs. Giving them access to debt counselling and budgeting support prevented crisis-level absenteeism during tax season, something they had experienced the previous year.

Example 3:

An HR team made one simple change that didn’t cost a dime: quarterly reminders. Employees received a 1-page summary of their EAP services every three months, with clear instructions and a contact number. Usage doubled in six months, and employee engagement survey scores around “feeling supported” rose significantly.

None of these changes were expensive. They all started by asking: What do our people need, and do they know how to get it?

The Hidden Cost of Inaction

Ignoring burnout doesn’t make it go away. It just makes it more expensive.

According to CAMH, 500,000 Canadians miss work every week due to mental illness. That’s lost productivity, pressure on coworkers, and strain on managers who are already stretched thin. 

That’s not just a few sick days—it’s a massive loss of time, continuity, and momentum across every industry. The cost of mental health continues to skyrocket for employers. In fact:

• Mental illness accounts for over 30% of all disability claims in Canada, costing employers more than $6 billion in lost productivity. 
• When employees are at work but too unwell to perform, lost productivity from presenteeism costs employers up to 7.5 times more than absenteeism.
• In small teams, a single person’s burnout can trigger a ripple effect, overloading coworkers, increasing tension, and pushing morale even lower.

Better Employee Benefits Isn’t Complicated

Many employers hesitate to improve employee benefit plans because they assume better support means higher costs. But that’s not necessarily true. With the right advisor, your plan can be redesigned to reflect real employee needs without blowing your budget.

At CG Hylton, we work with municipalities and small teams to build benefit plans that are:

• Affordable – We find ways to increase support without increasing costs.
• Flexible – Tailored to the needs of your team, not a generic package.
• Easy to understand – Clear language, clear access, and no guesswork.
  
  

For example, one recent plan redesign focused on removing barriers to mental health support by adjusting the real-world limits:

• We increased the per-visit reimbursement cap to reflect what local psychologists and counsellors actually charge, so employees wouldn’t have to choose between help and affordability.
• We also raised the annual maximum from $1,500 to $2,000, and expanded eligible providers beyond just Psychologists to include Registered Social Workers and Clinical Counsellors. Now employees have more choices and faster access to care that works best for them.

These adjustments improved morale, increased plan usage, and reduced burnout-related costs.

Do You Need to Rethink Your Benefits Plan?

If you’re not sure whether your current plan is doing its job, here’s a quick gut check:

• Are most employees unclear on what’s included or how to use it?
• Is your per-session mental health coverage lower than what local professionals actually charge?
• Are only psychologists covered, while social workers or counsellors are excluded?
• Has your plan limit for counselling stayed the same for 5+ years?
• Do your managers feel unprepared to handle employee mental health concerns?
• Are you seeing rising absenteeism, presenteeism, or quiet disengagement?
  
  

If you answered “yes” to even two of these, your plan probably isn’t keeping up with your people.

Let’s take a look at what your plan could be doing better. Small changes can make a big difference. Book a free no-obligation consultation today.