According to Beyond Blue, undiagnosed depression in the workplace costs $4.3 billion in lost productivity and accounts for more than 12 million days of reduced productivity each year.

And presenteeism – Gary’s practice of showing up for work but running on empty – costs workplaces twice as much as absenteeism, according to The Economist.

When you consider that more than 3 million people in Australia reportedly experience depression, anxiety or related alcohol and drug problems each year, creating a culture that respects and protects mental wellbeing becomes a business imperative.

Early diagnosis and intervention can increase employee productivity and lead to a five-fold return on investment, according to Beyond Blue research.

And there can be flow-on benefits for your team and workplace culture … if it’s done right.

Talking about mental health

Discounted gym memberships and free fruit in the kitchen are common ways for employers to promote good physical health in the workplace, but many organisations are yet to talk as freely about mental health.

Companies as varied as BT and Rolls-Royce have now introduced mental-health programs, which include running wellbeing projects for employees and training managers to help staff deal with stress.

In general, organisations are not handling mental-health issues as well as they could; many current management practices, such as coercing people into taking leave, can even make matters worse.

There’s more to mental wellbeing than team meetings on happiness or a news alert on the intranet about the workplace counsellor.

Caring for your employees’ mental health means ensuring respect for human rights and balancing this with your business objectives.

Privacy, respect and protection

How many of your previous employers would you trust to respect information about your own mental wellbeing?

What if your private information got in the way of a promotion, or people started to gossip? And would you trust your boss to help you through a relationship breakdown?

Done carefully, corporate training programs can help staff deal with stress and can raise awareness about depression. But it’s a sensitive issue and must be treated as such.

Creating a culture where it’s implicitly safe to discuss mental health is one way to respect and protect your workers, particularly when it comes to their privacy.

With this kind of culture, it will gradually become easier to:

• recognise some of the causes of depression
• spot depression among colleagues
• understand the consequences of untreated depression on workplace performance
• act sensibly, sensitively and responsibly in managing people with depression
• know where to go for help and guidance
• draw a link between workplace mental health and business performance.

When employers create environments in which their people know how to respect and protect their own and their colleagues’ mental wellbeing at work, their organisational culture and performance improve.

For more information and tools to help you deal with depression in the workplace, visit En Masse. Other useful resources can be found at Beyond Blue and Lifeline.

Mark Dean is Managing Director of En Masse, a provider of human rights online education and training.