April’s Stress Awareness Month and May’s Mental Health Awareness Month are useful reminders, but for many employees, stress is not seasonal.
Workloads. Job security. Rising costs. Family responsibilities. Health concerns. The general noise of the world. It all stacks up, and employees are feeling it.
Gallup’s latest U.S. workplace data found that 50% of employees experienced stress “a lot” the previous day, while only 32% of U.S. employees are engaged at work (1). SHRM also found that 31% of U.S. workers feel stressed because of their job often or always, and 30% would take a pay cut to receive better mental health support (2).
That should make employers pause. Not because every stressor can be fixed at work (they can’t), but because work plays a major role in how supported, stretched, or overwhelmed people feel.
For many employees, money is one of the loudest stressors in the room.
Reuters reported on a 2025 Bank of America survey showing that only 47% of employed people said they had a sense of financial well-being, down from 52% earlier in the year. The same survey found that nearly 85% carried some type of personal debt, while 26% were seeking help with emergency savings, debt repayment, or overall financial wellness, up from 13% in 2023 (3).
That financial pressure affects more than budgets. It can influence focus, morale, health, and how much room employees have to recover outside of work.
Mental Health America also identifies financial wellness as part of workplace mental health strategy, noting that 83% of 2025 Bell Seal employers offer financial education, planning, and other resources (4).
The takeaway is simple: when employees are worried about money, mental health support cannot sit in a separate box. Financial wellness and emotional wellbeing are connected.
Not every form of support needs to be clinical, formal, or complex.
Sometimes support looks like reducing the cost of a family outing. Making a gym membership more accessible. Helping someone save on pet care, travel, entertainment, meals, or the everyday purchases already sitting in their cart.
That may sound small, but small pressures add up. So do small moments of relief.
This is where perks can play a practical role. They are not a replacement for strong health benefits, mental health care, fair workloads, or good management. But they can extend support into everyday life in a way employees can actually use.
For employers, that matters. A benefits strategy is strongest when it accounts for the full employee experience, not just the moments when someone is in crisis.
Awareness campaigns can open the door, but they are not the full strategy.
Employees need to know what support is available, how to access it, and why it matters to them. NAMI found that only half of the workforce knows how to access mental health care through employer-sponsored health insurance (5).
That is a communication problem, but it is also a design problem.
If employees have to dig through old PDFs, scattered portals, or forgotten onboarding materials, support starts to feel theoretical. The best programs are visible, relevant, and reinforced throughout the year.
That includes mental health resources. Financial wellness tools. Lifestyle perks. Savings opportunities. Community-building moments. Programs that help employees take care of themselves.
Stress management should not be treated as a once-a-year message or a wellness checklist item.
It should be part of how organizations think about retention, engagement, productivity, and culture. Employees are not just looking for more benefits, they are looking for support that feels connected to what they are dealing with right now.
For BenefitHub, that is where perks fit into the bigger picture.
Perks will not eliminate workplace stress. They will not fix burnout on their own. But they can help employees stretch their budgets, enjoy more of life outside of work, and access everyday support that feels tangible.
And in a time when employees are balancing job pressure, financial pressure, and personal stress all at once, tangible support matters.
Mental health at work is not only about what happens at work.
It is also about whether employees have the resources, breathing room, and practical support to recover, recharge, and participate in life outside of their jobs.
That is the bigger opportunity for employers: to make support feel less like a policy and more like something employees can actually use.
Sources:
1. Gallup. State of the Global Workplace 2025 Report. Gallup, 2025, www.gallup.com/workplace/697904/state-of-the-global-workplace-global-data.aspx.
2. Society for Human Resource Management. “SHRM 2025 Insights: Workplace Mental Health.” SHRM, 2025, www.shrm.org/topics-tools/research/shrm-2025-insights--workplace-mental-health.
3. Disis, Jill. “US Workers Are Becoming More Stressed About Finances, BofA Survey Shows.” Reuters, 3 Sept. 2025, www.reuters.com/business/finance/us-workers-are-becoming-more-stressed-about-finances-bofa-survey-shows-2025-09-03/.
4. Mental Health America. Bell Seal Outcomes 2025. Mental Health America, Aug. 2025, mhanational.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Bell-Seal-Outcomes-2025.pdf.
5. National Alliance on Mental Illness. The 2025 NAMI Workplace Mental Health Poll. NAMI, 2025, www.nami.org/research/publications-reports/survey-reports/the-2025-nami-workplace-mental-health-poll/. Accessed 11 May 2026.