Printing companies can reap as much as $15 for every dollar they spend on minimising the impact of mental health issues among their employees, printers were told at a PIAA seminar this morning.
PIAA senior workplace relations adviser and former Senator Mary Jo Fisher says workers suffering from a mental illness like depression or bipolar disorder take three or four days off work a month, and cost their company an average of $9660 a year in absenteeism and lost productivity, plus more resulting from lower morale and disruption to other workers.
“Don’t delay dealing with it if you think it’s happening to you or one of your workers. It’s an illness, not a weakness,” she says.
Actions to minimise the effects of mental health on companies include workplace exercise, resilience training, coaching and mentoring programs and cognitive behaviour therapy for workers returning to work from treatment.
She says the average return on investment is $2.30 for every dollar, but up to $15 for small businesses.
Fisher says the most important thing is to identify the symptoms early and encourage the worker to seek professional help, but not to try to do it themselves.
“You can’t fix someone, you’re not a shrink and you don’t have to be, just help them take that step,” she says.
However, she says in the end owners have to consider their business first and decide whether it is worth investing resources into an employee, and it may be better to deftly usher those who were underperforming anyway out of the firm.
“Some people may use it as an excuse for poor performance, so it’s important to make sure it’s legitimate and that the person is following their treatment plan,” she says.
PIAA chief executive Bill Healey, who revealed he is himself type 2 bipolar, says dubious stress-related workers compensation claims pushed by some doctors have caused cynicism of mental health, and that doctors need to be more accountable, particularly for return to work certificates.
Deborah Kennedy, program development manager for mental health promotion organisation Superfriend says suicide rates are particularly high in jobs like manufacturing, including printing, and the best way to deal with it is to assume a worker showing symptoms has a mental illness until proven otherwise.
Superfriend advises superannuation funds – including Media Super which funded the seminar – on how to promote and support improved mental health and wellbeing for their members, through the workplace.
The 30 or so printers in attendance responded positively to the presentation, with many saying they would use the information to improve their businesses.
Ebis Print managing director Paul Freeman says four or five employees at his company have struggled with mental illness in the past few years, one committing suicide and an accounting stealing money from the business.
“This seminar identified a real issue and anything that can help it is positive. This gave me an understanding of the best actions to take and it’s definitely something we will include in business planning,” he says.
“It’s hard to identify symptoms, our accountant was an alcoholic and a gambler and we missed it for a long time.”
Globus Group chief executive Chris Burt says he found the seminar useful and he is interested in pursuing employee awareness training.
“There’s always challenges from employee welfare issues, the line between personal and work issues is often blurred,” he says.
“Business owners often do not have the tools and some employees don’t want help, but if resources are made available they will usually use them.”
Blue Star managing director Geoff Selig says his company is soon launching an employee wellness program that would incorporate some of the seminar’s points.
“It’s quite a big task to get it all together with 950 employees from different parts of the business,” he says.
“This has been invaluable and I commend you for putting it on.”
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