As an organisation, we are supporting Heads Up a workplace mental health initiative. Here are a few interesting facts and figures from them.
- 3.8 million employees in Australia regularly skip their lunch break with half claiming they are too busy. But research tells us that lack of personal time will actually reduce productivity in the long term.
- At any given time about one in five people in Australia are experiencing a mental health condition – most commonly anxiety and depression. (If it is not you, look around you at your family or work mates – is it one of them?)
- Mental health issues cost Australian companies about $10.9 billion a year in lost productivity.
- A study by PricewaterhouseCoopers has found that every dollar invested in improving mental health returns an average of $2.30 to the organisation. In some industries, the return on investment (ROI) is even greater e.g. in the mining and energy sector, the ROI can be as high as six fold.
Workplace health scorecard: Consider the following when when creating a mentally healthy workplace
Does your workplace? (tick all that apply)
- encourage people to speak openly about mental health
- identify and reduce, where practicable, risks to employee mental health
- support all employees, including those with mental health conditions
- view diversity as an organisational advantage
- have low staff turnover and sick/stress leave levels
- enjoy high staff loyalty
- encourage career and personal development
- have employees that are productive members of a team.
How did you go? If you ticked all the boxes, congratulations! You have a healthy workplace. If not, then you already know what areas to focus on to improve health and wellbeing at your work. If you want some help with developing a healthy workplace action plan go to: http://www.headsup.org.au/
