HR Works: Suicide Prevention—An Overlooked But Crucial Workplace Wellness Initiative

As always, the focus of HR Works: The Podcast for HR Professionals  is to help HR professionals increase their value to their organizations by arming them with the best practices and strategies to attract, motivate and retain top talent, and in turn have a positive impact on the bottom line.

In Episode 71, we’re diverging slightly off our typical subject matter, but with good reason.  We want to discuss something even more important than strategic HR best practices or company profitability—we’re going to talk about how HR can literally help save lives.

Suicide is a growing epidemic in our country.  According to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, there were 44,965 recorded suicides in the United States in 2016 compared with 29,199 in 1999, representing a 35% increase.  In 2015, suicide was the seventh leading cause of death for males and the 14th leading cause of death for females and was the second leading cause of death for people between the ages of 15 to 24.

Our guest, Anna Mittag, Vice President of Operations at LifeSpeak, believes that the workplace is the ideal venue to address mental health issues and suicide prevention. She’s going to tell you why, and, more importantly, what you can do to provide the tools and support to your workforce so that none of your employees add to the sobering statistics above.