Addiction is present in every large organization — nicotine, alcohol, social media, pornography, gambling — draining productivity through absenteeism, turnover, and lost performance. Most HR directors sense this. What they lack is two things that would make action possible: a number that justifies intervention, and a language that makes it safe to start the conversation. Without a quantified cost, there is no business case. Without a communication framework, silence holds — because nobody knows how to raise the topic without causing harm or stigma. Organizations are stuck not from indifference, but from the absence of the right tools.

What cost categories should a comprehensive addiction cost model cover across major addiction types, and what Hungarian and EU-level data can make it defensible enough to build a real business case from? How should an ROI calculator be designed so that HR directors and university wellness offices can actually use it to unlock budget and commitment? And once the case is made — what does effective internal communication about addiction look like, what approaches backfire, and what would a ready-to-use organizational playbook need to contain to take a manager from awareness to action?

In this project we are looking to develop a tool that helps HR and wellness offices calculate ROI, or solutions around improving internal communication on addiction.