Whether a business operates from a conventional bricks and mortar building or a virtual office in cyberspace, the health and safety of employees is paramount.

We have rules and compliance regimes to reduce risks and protect the physical health of employees but their mental wellbeing is often overlooked. This may be because mental health conditions are harder to identify, go unreported because they create embarrassment and insecurity for sufferers, and are still shrouded in stigma.

As the English comedian and actor, Stephen Fry, so eloquently put it: “One in four people, like me, have a mental health problem. Many more people have a problem with that.”

There have been some advances in community attitudes and first class support agencies and programs are now in place. However, I suspect Stephen Fry’s observation is still very pertinent today.

Further progress in reducing the incidence of mental health conditions needs to occur in the workplace.

We have to create a working environment that is attuned to the good mental wellbeing of employees and reduces the risk that activities or staff behaviour is a catalyst for, or contributes to, an individual’s poor mental health.

Ensuring that we have the most supportive and safe workplaces is not only the appropriate duty of care that we owe employees, it is also a sound financial model.

It is estimated, for example, that untreated depression results in 6 million working days lost each year in Australia.

A PriceWaterhouseCoopers analysis in 2014 found that every dollar spent on effective mental health actions returns $2.30 in benefits to the organisation through reduced absenteeism, improved productivity and fewer compensation claims.

Through the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Business SA is a proud participant in the Mentally Healthy Workplace Alliance – a collaboration of thirteen business groups, government agencies and support organisations like beyondblue and the Black Dog Institute – which promotes the development of healthy workplaces across the nation.

The Alliance’s HeadsUp program gives business owners and employees comprehensive advice and free tools that can be used to “develop an action plan to create a mentally healthy workplace, find out about taking care of your own mental health, and get tips on having a conversation with someone you're concerned about”.

There is much that can be done to create healthy workplaces. It’s time that we all put as much focus on mental wellbeing as we do on other HR and operational issues.