Depression causes up to 200 million lost workdays annually and costs employers as much as $44 billion. You can have a healthier, more productive workforce if you have processes in place to identify and help employees who experience depression. Among the most useful steps:
- Create a supportive workplace that destigmatizes depression and encourages employees to get help.
- Create a culture where employees feel safe sharing their feelings. Employee resource groups can help reduce the stigma around depression and offer awareness and training.
- Train supervisors to recognize depression.
- Offer depression-recognition screening.
- Use employee assistance programs (EAPs) to promote greater awareness of depression.
- Provide health insurance benefits that give employees access to psychiatric and other mental health care and services.
