Men's Health Month: How HR Can Support Male Wellbeing

Men make up half the workforce, and roughly 80% of suicide deaths in the United States. In 2024, the suicide rate among men was nearly four times higher than among women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet men are consistently the least likely group to raise their hand for support.

That gap is not a personal failing. It is a design problem. Most wellness programs are built on the assumption that employees who need help will ask for it. Men, in large numbers, do not. And when a benefit goes unused, it stops protecting the people it was meant to reach, and stops delivering the return the organization paid for.

Men's Health Month, observed every June, is a natural moment to fix that. Here's what the data says about why men disengage from wellbeing support, and the specific program design and communication strategies HR leaders can use to close the gap.

Why Men Are Less Likely to Use Wellness Benefits

The pattern shows up across nearly every category of support, from therapy to a routine physical.

On the mental health side, around 17% of U.S. men received mental health treatment or counseling in the past year, compared with a much higher share of women, according to SAMHSA data compiled by Statista. When the National Alliance on Mental Illness asked employees whether they would use a workplace mental health resource, men were less likely to say yes than women — 48% versus 55%.

The physical health picture is just as stark. Only half of men consider an annual check-up a regular part of taking care of themselves, according to Cleveland Clinic's MENtion It survey, and nearly half of Generation Z men do not have a primary care doctor at all. Women are about 33% more likely than men to visit a medical provider — a habit gap that compounds over a career.

The drivers behind this are well documented: stigma, a reluctance to appear vulnerable, and the belief that seeking help signals weakness. Two in five workers still worry they would be judged if they shared about their mental health at work, according to NAMI's 2025 poll, and that perceived stigma did not decline year over year. For many men, the safest option feels like saying nothing.

How Can HR Support Men's Wellbeing at Work?

HR can support men's mental and physical wellbeing at work by removing the friction and stigma that keep men from using benefits in the first place. The most effective strategies include normalizing help-seeking through visible leadership participation, replacing single-channel programs with discreet and flexible options, building wellbeing into the flow of work rather than requiring employees to opt in, and communicating benefits in plain, proactive language. Because men are statistically the least likely group to ask for support, the goal is to design programs that meet them where they already are, not to wait for them to come forward.

The Hidden Cost of Underused Benefits

When men opt out of support, the consequences land on the same metrics HR and finance leaders track every quarter.

Start with the benefits already sitting on the shelf. SHRM's 2024 research found that 82% of U.S. businesses offer an Employee Assistance Program, yet active annual utilization consistently runs between just 10% and 20% of covered employees. The majority of workers at companies paying for EAP access never touch it. EAP underutilization is one of the clearest examples of spend that produces no return — and men's lower help-seeking behavior is a significant part of why those numbers stay low.

The financial logic is direct. 72% of HR leaders say degraded employee mental health contributes to higher costs for their organization, according to Wellhub's Return on Wellbeing 2026 study, through higher healthcare spend, absenteeism, and lost productivity. When a large share of the workforce avoids preventive care and mental health support until a problem becomes a crisis, those costs are not avoided — they are deferred and amplified.

There is a perception gap making it worse. While 77% of executives believe their employees' mental wellbeing improved last year, only 33% of workers agree, per the same Wellhub research. Leaders are overestimating how their people are doing — and you cannot close a gap you do not know is there.

6 Strategies to Close the Wellness Program Gender Gap

Closing the gap is less about adding new benefits and more about redesigning how existing ones reach men. These six strategies address the documented barriers head-on.

1. Lead With Visible Leadership Participation

The single most powerful signal a man can receive is watching a senior leader use the same resources without apology. 78% of HR professionals say senior leadership prioritizes employee mental health in their decisions and strategy, according to Wellhub's Return on Wellbeing 2026 study, but that commitment only changes behavior when employees can see it.

Implementation steps:

• Ask male leaders to share, in their own words, how they use the company's wellbeing benefits — a therapy session, a fitness habit, a mental health day. Personal stories from leadership carry signal weight that policy documents cannot replicate.
• Feature these stories during Men's Health Month and then keep them visible year-round, not just in June.
• Make participation routine rather than exceptional. When a manager blocks time for a workout or a counseling appointment on a shared calendar, it tells the team the behavior is normal.

2. Reduce Friction and Offer Discreet Access

Men frequently cite inconvenience as a barrier: 61% of men said they would be more likely to attend their annual check-up if seeing a doctor were more convenient, Cleveland Clinic found. The lesson applies directly to workplace benefits: every extra step is a reason to disengage.

Implementation steps:

• Prioritize app-based and on-demand options that let employees access support privately, without a phone call to a switchboard or a visible appointment.
• Offer telehealth and virtual mental and emotional wellbeing tools that men can use from home, on their own schedule.
• Audit your enrollment process. If accessing a benefit requires more than a couple of clicks, you are losing the people who were already on the fence.

3. Build Wellbeing Into the Flow of Work

Programs that require employees to opt in will always lose the workers least likely to ask. The fix is to integrate support into daily routines rather than adding another item to an already full schedule.

Programs that cater only to certain interests, fitness levels, or lifestyles quietly exclude a large share of the workforce before anyone has the chance to engage, Wellhub's research notes. The most effective programs offer genuine breadth, reduce friction, and meet employees where they already are.

Implementation steps:

• Choose flexible platforms that span fitness, mindfulness, therapy, nutrition, and sleep, so a man who would never book a therapy session might start with a gym membership or a sleep app — and build from there.
• Embed wellbeing prompts into existing touchpoints: onboarding, team meetings, and manager check-ins.
• Treat physical activity as an on-ramp. For many men, movement is a more comfortable entry point than a direct mental health conversation, and the two are deeply connected.

4. Communicate Benefits in Plain, Proactive Language

Many men do not use benefits because they do not fully know what is available. Roughly four in five employees say it would help to receive information or training about employer health insurance benefits for mental health treatment and stress or burnout management, according to NAMI's 2025 poll.

Implementation steps:

• Communicate wellbeing benefits more than once a year. Open enrollment alone is not enough — repeat the message through the channels men actually read.
• Use direct, jargon-free language. Spell out what each benefit covers, how to access it, and that it is confidential.
• Frame benefits around performance and longevity, not just illness. Messaging that connects wellbeing to strength, energy, and being there for family resonates with the 82% of men who say they try to stay healthy to live longer for the people who rely on them.

5. Train Managers to Open the Door

Benefits only work when employees feel safe using them. Employees at workplaces that offer mental health training are far less likely to report that their productivity has suffered because of their mental health — 21% versus 38% at workplaces without it, according to NAMI. Yet just over 20% of employees receive any training on mental health conditions or symptoms.

Implementation steps:

• Train people managers to recognize signs of stress and burnout and to open a supportive — not diagnostic — conversation. The goal is not to make managers clinicians; it is to lower the shame that prevents help-seeking.
• Give managers simple language for checking in, so a "How are you holding up?" feels routine rather than alarming.
• Equip managers to point employees toward the right resource quickly, before a manageable issue becomes a crisis.

6. Address Physical and Mental Wellbeing Together

For men, physical and mental health are rarely separate concerns — and treating them as one connected system reaches more people. A systematic review found strong evidence that physical activity, resilience, and social connection are key mediators of mental health outcomes, meaning programs that address only one dimension will consistently underdeliver on the others.

Implementation steps:

• Pair physical health campaigns — like Men's Health Month screenings — with mental and emotional wellbeing resources, so men encounter both at the same moment.
• Promote preventive screenings actively. Early detection of conditions like high blood pressure and high cholesterol depends on men showing up before symptoms appear.
• Use a holistic, multi-pillar program rather than a stack of disconnected point solutions, so support feels like one coherent offering instead of a benefits maze.

Men's Wellbeing Benefits: Where Most Programs Fall Short

Frequently Asked Questions

Supporting Men's Wellbeing Strengthens Your Whole Workforce

Men's lower engagement with wellbeing support is not just a men's issue — it is a workforce issue. Underused benefits drain budgets, untreated conditions raise healthcare costs, and a culture where any group feels it cannot ask for help weakens psychological safety for everyone. The strategies that reach men — visible leadership, low-friction access, plain communication, and an integrated approach to physical and mental health — make programs better for the entire organization.

That connection is exactly why benefit design matters so much. When support is built into the flow of work, available across every dimension of wellbeing, and easy to reach from any device, the people who would otherwise stay silent start to participate. Organizations using Wellhub report improved employee mental health at a rate of 75%, compared with 59% of those without it, according to the Return on Wellbeing 2026 study — a gap driven largely by a program built to be used.

A comprehensive, flexible wellbeing platform makes it easier to meet men where they are, turn one-time awareness moments into lasting habits, and close the engagement gap that quietly undermines so many programs.

Speak with a Wellhub wellbeing specialist today to learn how a comprehensive wellbeing program can help you support every employee — and strengthen your organization's long-term health and retention strategy.