Time to encourage a mentally healthy workplace - EmployeeConnect HRIS
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Time to encourage a mentally healthy workplace

Making sure a workforce is happy and healthy has a wide range of benefits for business owners and this includes doing everything possible to promote good mental wellbeing.

October marks Safe Work Australia Month and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) is encouraging companies to focus on the mental health of their workforce.

The theme of this year’s event is ‘Work Safe, Home Safe’ and it explores the link between being healthy in both a professional and personal capacity.

Beyondblue has teamed up with the ACCI to develop information to help businesses promote a healthy workplace and one of the measures is the Heads Up Return on Investment tool.

This can be used to calculate the potential cost savings that can be made when a workforce has good mental health.

Users can select their specific industry and the size of their organisation, which enables the tool to determine how an investment will enhance productivity and lower levels of absenteeism.

HR consulting is another method companies can adopt to make sure their workplaces are as productive as possible.

Research published earlier this year by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) analysed the impact of poor mental health on organisations across a wide range of sectors.

For example, it discovered how the prevalence of mental health conditions is highest in the financial and insurance sector, as a third of people are affected by an illness.

PwC also analysed the financial impact that mental health conditions have on absenteeism, as it predicted that companies lose out on around $11 billion a year.

As much as $146 million of this figure is the result of compensation claims, although there are also costs associated with absenteeism.

The ACCI is therefore encouraging its members to come up with an action plan for dealing with mental health in the workplace so employees have the support they need.

Ari Kopoulos
ari@employeeconnect.com

CEO at EmployeeConnect