Unsurprisingly, the old shibboleth that busy hands are happy hands does not always ring true in the workplace of the twenty-first century. It is common sense that depression hinders productivity. But, it turns out that depression is a detriment in more ways than one, as a recent survey featured in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry reveals.

Diagnoses of severe depression is on the rise, affecting a reported 6.8% of the workforce, according to Kaiser Health News. Naturally, those affected seek medical assistance for their symptoms, which costs employers because they are responsible for providing their employees with health care coverage. The sum of the medical bills are starting to get rather unwieldy, however, as the total amount of cash spent on treating employees’ depression rose from $173.2 billion in 2005 to about $210 billion in 2010—an increase of 21.5%. Moreover, it was found that those who are depressed are much more likely to additionally suffer and require paid-treatment for other ailments, such as migraine headaches, back issues, and more.

Many attribute the shocking rise in depression to the 2008 economic recession, which created a stressful job market to say the least.

The study also looked into how depression affects workers’ performance around the work place. As mentioned earlier, most can divine that a depressed worker is an unproductive worker. The study affirms this notion. Researchers found that those who have a major depression disorder lost significant productivity on approximately 32 workdays each year.

So, it goes without saying that keeping your employees and coworkers as happy as possible is key to operating a successful company. Their vitality is directly related to the collective success of any enterprise. Keeping your employees happy means you have to get them paid on time. Payroll funding for staffing companies is possible with staffing factoring.