Back to Resources & InsightsSLV Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
Mid-market IT Services · Founded 2011
Hubbili, Karnataka
12-month programme: March 2024 – February 2025
420 employees across both locations
Previous programme: Generic EAP (provider not disclosed)3% → 71%
Utilisation — programme start vs Month 12
4.2:1 ROI
Work Outcome Suite methodology, 12 months
14 days
From signed contract to first employee session
A dormant programme and a sceptical HR Director
When Krishna Kumar joined SLV Technologies as HR Director in early 2023, the company had an employee assistance programme. On paper, it was a benefit. In practice, it was a line item in the annual report that almost nobody used.
The previous EAP had been in place for three years. The provider sent a monthly email with the helpline number. There was a poster in the kitchen of the Bangalore office. HR had received no feedback, no engagement data, and no indication of whether the programme was helping anyone.
A pulse survey conducted in Q3 2023 revealed what Krishna had been suspecting: 61% of SLV's employees were experiencing moderate-to-severe work-related stress, and the majority of them had either forgotten the EAP existed or had tried to access it and given up. When asked why they hadn't used the programme, the answers were familiar: they didn't know where to start, they were worried about who would see their information, or they had called the number once and never heard back.
“I remember sitting with the data from that pulse survey and feeling genuinely embarrassed,” Krishna recalls. “We had 420 people. More than 250 of them were struggling. And our programme was being used by maybe 12 people. We weren't providing mental health support. We were providing the illusion of mental health support.”
Before — Traditional EAP
- ✓3% utilisation — 12 employees out of 420
- ✓No data on outcomes or engagement
- ✓2–3 week average wait for first appointment
- ✓Employees navigated the system alone
- ✓HR had no visibility — zero reporting
- ✓61% of employees experiencing moderate-severe stress
After — Refill Health · Month 12
- ✓71% utilisation — 298 employees engaged
- ✓Monthly clinical outcomes dashboard for HR
- ✓Average 18 hours from registration to first session
- ✓Dedicated Care Navigator for every employee
- ✓Full Refill Insights™ reporting — anonymised & live
- ✓92% average symptom reduction in completers
What made them switch — and what nearly stopped them
Krishna spent three months evaluating mental health programme providers before meeting Refill Health. His criteria were specific: he needed utilisation data from real clients, a model that didn't rely on employees to self-navigate, and complete DPDP Act compliance with data stored in India.
“Most providers I spoke to could show me activity data — calls answered, sessions booked. None of them could show me what changed for employees because of those sessions,” Krishna says. “Refill was the first vendor who showed me before/after PHQ-9 scores. That changed the conversation.”
The financial case that unlocked approval
₹28.4L
SLV Technologies' estimated annual productivity cost from untreated mental health conditions — calculated using WOS methodology before the programme launched. Against a programme investment of ₹7.8 lakh/year, the theoretical ROI was 3.6:1 before a single session had taken place. The actual measured ROI at Month 12 was 4.2:1.
The 12-month journey — month by month
SLV Technologies went from signed contract to first employee session in 14 days. What followed was a carefully sequenced implementation that Krishna describes as “the most important thing we did right” — briefing managers before employees, and making the programme's confidentiality guarantee the centrepiece of every communication.
Contract signed — managers briefed before employees
Refill Health's Customer Success team ran a 25-minute manager briefing for all 38 people managers at SLV — two days before the all-staff announcement. Managers received specific scripts for what to say if an employee asked about the programme, and clear guidance on what they would and would not see in the Refill Insights™ dashboard.
38 managers briefed in 48 hoursCEO launch email — 14 first-day registrations
SLV's CEO sent a personal launch email addressing confidentiality directly: “I want you to know — I will never see who has used this programme or what was discussed. Only anonymous organisation-level statistics will be visible to HR.” 14 employees registered within 6 hours of the email going out.
14 registrations · Day 1First-month utilisation: 18% — 3× above expected
By the end of Month 1, 76 employees had registered and 58 had completed at least one session. The Care Navigator team had proactively contacted 44 employees who had registered but not yet booked — 31 of them booked within 24 hours of navigator contact. This was the first signal that guided outreach was working.
18% utilisation · 76 registrations · 58 activeWord-of-mouth kicks in — 34% utilisation
The most important growth driver from Month 3 onwards was employee-to-employee recommendation. Krishna surveyed 20 employees about how they heard about the programme — 12 said "a colleague told me." Peer recommendation in mental health programmes is rare. It signals employees felt safe enough with the programme to mention it to others.
34% utilisation · Word-of-mouth confirmedFirst clinical outcomes data — avg PHQ-9 down 38%
At the 6-month mark, the first cohort of employees had completed their programmes. Anonymised PHQ-9 data showed an average 38% reduction in depression scores. This was the data that convinced SLV's CFO to recommend Refill Health to three other companies in their portfolio. “The CFO went from sceptic to advocate,” Krishna notes.
51% utilisation · PHQ-9 ↓38% avgManager conversations double — team-level impact visible
SLV's manager training paid off in Month 9, when internal HR surveys showed managers were having significantly more mental health conversations with team members. Several managers reported that their teams were now mentioning the programme proactively in 1:1s. The programme had become part of the culture, not a compliance benefit.
63% utilisation · Manager conversations ↑2.4×71% utilisation — 4.2:1 ROI — programme renewed immediately
By end of Month 12, 298 of 420 employees had engaged with the programme. Clinical outcomes across all completers showed 92% symptom reduction and 98% satisfaction. The ROI calculation confirmed 4.2:1. SLV Technologies renewed the programme for a second year within the same week as the 12-month review.
71% utilisation · 4.2:1 ROI · Renewed same weekMonth-by-month utilisation
Month 1
18%
76 employees registered
Month 2
26%
Navigator outreach active
Month 3
34%
Word-of-mouth begins
Month 4
41%
Hyderabad team activates
Month 5
47%
Manager programme complete
Month 6
51%
First outcomes data available
Month 9
63%
Culture shift measurable
Month 12
71%
Programme renewed same week
What changed for employees — the clinical data
Clinical outcomes data at SLV Technologies is sourced from Refill Health's measurement-based care programme: PHQ-9 (depression) and GAD-7 (anxiety) assessments administered before the first session and every two sessions thereafter. All data below is anonymised and aggregated — no individual employee data is identifiable.
PHQ-9 scores — before and after programme completion
420 employees · Completers cohort · Anonymised aggregate
↓92%
Average symptom reduction
Across employees completing full programme — PHQ-9 and GAD-7 combined measure
78%
Programme completion rate
vs 22–34% industry average for EAP programmes — navigator follow-through was the key driver
98%
Post-programme satisfaction
Employee survey sent 30 days after programme completion — 94% response rate
18h
Average time to first session
From registration to first confirmed session — target was 24 hours; SLV averaged 18 hours
Refill Health helped us improve engagement and bring clarity to workforce wellbeing. We achieved 71% utilisation within 12 months and a 4.2:1 ROI. The programme went from a line in the employee handbook to the most-used benefit in the organisation. I've never seen an HR initiative move that fast.
— Krishna Kumar, HR Director · SLV Technologies · Bangalore
The five decisions that made the biggest difference
When we asked Krishna what he would do the same if starting over, and what he would do differently, five decisions came up repeatedly as the drivers of SLV's result.
Brief managers before employees — not after
SLV briefed all 38 people managers two days before the all-staff announcement. The briefing gave managers specific language for when employees asked questions (“It's completely private — I don't see anything about your use of the programme”) and explicit guidance on what not to say. In organisations where managers were caught off-guard by employee questions, early utilisation consistently dropped. At SLV, managers became programme advocates from Day 1.
The CEO email addressed confidentiality in the first paragraph
SLV's CEO Rahul Mehta personally wrote the launch email — and the first paragraph was entirely about confidentiality: what HR would see (anonymous aggregate numbers), what managers would see (nothing), and what employees could rely on (session content is permanently private). This single decision drove 14 registrations on Day 1 alone. Previous EAP communications had used generic “confidential support” language that employees didn't trust.
Letting the Care Navigator team do their job — without interference
In Month 1, Krishna received a report showing that 44 employees had registered but not yet booked a session. His instinct was to send a follow-up email from HR encouraging them to book. The Refill Health navigator team asked him not to — they were already in the process of reaching out individually. 31 of those 44 employees booked within 24 hours of navigator contact. HR contact would have signalled surveillance; navigator contact felt like support.
Presenting the monthly data to the executive team — every month
From Month 2 onwards, Krishna included the Refill Insights\u2122 utilisation dashboardin his monthly executive report. Leadership could see real-time engagement data without seeing any individual employee information. This kept the programme visible at the leadership level and prevented the “set and forget” dynamic that kills most EAP programmes. When the data showed Hyderabad lagging behind Bangalore in Month 4, targeted outreach was authorised within a week.
Using clinical outcome data to make the business case — retroactively
At Month 6, Krishna used the first PHQ-9 cohort data to prepare a board presentation. Not to justify the programme — it was already approved — but to show the board what mental health investment actually produces. The presentation showed 38 employees moving from moderate-severe depression to minimal symptoms. The board approved a 15% budget increase for Year 2 before the meeting ended.