Mental Wellbeing

Safe Work Australia reports that stress costs Australian businesses more than $10 billion per year in absenteeism and reduced productivity from unwell workers (Healey, 2017). One in five Australians has faced challenges with mental health, according to widely accepted research (Stokes, 2017). Executives see how mental illness can be hidden, yet eat away insidiously at workmates and friends until often it is too late to save someone. Staff do not check in their worries at the front door before starting work each day. Woolworths has made mental wellbeing its No.1 safety priority via the use of employee assistance providers. Other large organisations are doing likewise for moral, reputational and productivity reasons. But for all the good work and counselling offered by employee assistance providers, prevention is better.