You’ve invested in the right wellness programs. You’ve got dashboards tracking every metric imaginable. From the outside, it looks like everything is working.
So why are your healthcare costs still rising? Why are your people still burning out?
Here’s the truth no one’s talking about:
Your biggest cost driver isn’t disengaged employees. It’s the ones who never say a word.
They show up. They power through. They carry the load for everyone else.
And they do it silently.
We call them the silent workforce, and they’re made up of two invisible groups:
- Caregivers, who spend their days holding everything together for everyone and putting their own care last
- People with chronic conditions, who’ve learned to cope with their condition. Not ignore it, exactly. Just work around it. They learn to adapt, and hide the fatigue, until “fine” becomes a way of life.
They don’t raise their hands. They don’t trigger alerts.
But when their health finally breaks down, your costs spike:
- $2,945 per employee/year in lost productivity from absenteeism (Kaiser Permanente study)
- $4,000–$21,000 per employee for burnout-related costs (HR Dive)
If you’re not identifying these employees early, you’re already paying for it.
The good news? There’s a better way.
At Personify Health, we’ve helped organizations just like yours cut costs by finally seeing the employees who need the most support.
tIn just 75 seconds, we’ll show you how we helped one employer finally spot their silent workforce and cut costs by supporting them before things got critical.
👇 Watch the video now to see how it works.
Why are caregivers and employees with chronic conditions driving up your healthcare costs?
Most self-insured companies don’t lose control of their health spend because of one big event.
They lose it in a thousand small moments no one sees.
- A caregiver skips their own appointment—again
- An employee with a chronic condition stops managing it because no one followed up
- A team member quietly burns out and then disappears into a short-term disability claim.
These moments don’t show up on your dashboard but they’re exactly what’s driving your costs.
And if you’re only tracking what happens after a claim hits, you’re not managing risk, you’re chasing it.
Most wellness programs weren’t built to catch these moments. They’re designed for people who raise their hands. Not the ones who are too tired, too busy, or too burned out to ask for help.
Why most wellness programs don’t work (for the people who need them most)
A meditation app might help with stress.
A gym stipend might encourage movement.
But if someone’s spending their lunch break managing their mom’s prescriptions or pushing through another flare-up just to stay employed, those tools aren’t enough.
The problem isn’t the benefits themselves.
It’s how disconnected they feel to the people who need them.
When your wellness program feels like a list of options instead of a clear path, guess who doesn’t engage?
The people who are already overwhelmed.
These employees don’t need more apps and options.
They need a system that knows how to see them early, guide them clearly, and connect the dots between what they’re going through and the support that’s already there.
What happens when you start seeing them
When you put that kind of system in place, the impact goes far beyond engagement.
When one employer stopped waiting for employees to ask for help and started proactively identifying those most at risk, the results were immediate and measurable.
- 29% fewer inpatient stays
- Over 50% drop in avoidable hospitalizations
- Improved caregiver retention and lower burnout
These results didn’t come from launching more programs. They came from targeting the people who were most likely to fall through the cracks and reaching them before things got worse.
Want to fix this at the source? Start here.
As you’ve seen, rising healthcare costs, burnout, absenteeism, and low benefits engagement aren’t isolated problems. They’re symptoms of a deeper issue:
A workforce left to navigate care alone.
That’s why we created the eBook, The Hidden Cost Spiral: Chronic Conditions, Caregiving, and the Choices That Shape Your Spend. It’s a practical guide to finding the silent workforce inside your organization and supporting them before small issues become big costs.
FAQ
Q: What is the “silent workforce” in healthcare?
A: Employees (especially caregivers and those with chronic illnesses) who don’t self-report, but whose health issues quietly drive-up costs through absenteeism, presenteeism, and burnout.