From June 23 to 26, Rylan McKinley and Jason Finucan of StigmaZero, pictured left to right, attended the SHRM 2019 annual conference and exposition in Las Vegas. We were proud to introduce StigmaZero to the US market (represented by nearly 19,000 delegates) as a vendor in the massive exhibition.

As stated on their website, SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management, “creates better workplaces where employers and employees thrive together. As the voice of all things work, workers and the workplace, SHRM is the foremost expert, convener and thought leader on issues impacting today’s evolving workplaces. With 300,000+ HR and business executive members in 165 countries, SHRM impacts the lives of more than 115 million workers and families globally. Learn more at SHRM.org.”

As you might expect given the sheer size of SHRM, when they put on their annual conference they don’t hold back; keynote speakers included Martha Stewart and Brené Brown, and the closing night’s entertainment was provided by none other than Lionel Richie. 

In the midst of all of this, we had countless conversations with delegates visiting the StigmaZero booth and learned an important reality:

The Market is Ready to End the Stigma of Mental Illness in the Workplace

We received consistently positive responses to our offerings, which include our innovative online program, Create Your StigmaZero Workplace, keynote lectures by StigmaZero Founder, Jason Finucan, and Jason’s recently published book, Jason: 1 | Stigma: 0 – My battle with mental illness at home and in the workplace.

In fact, the majority of delegates who we spoke with began the conversation with some variation of “We know we need to address the stigma” and “We understand awareness isn’t enough.”

From Awareness to Action

The challenge of workplace mental illness and stigma may seem daunting, but there is something you can do about it. While mental illness can be treated, stigma can be cured. In order to cure stigma in your workplace, you need to provide the education, tools and resources your employees, managers, HR personnel and leaders need to fully understand and improve their response to this complex challenge.

At StigmaZero, our vision is for a future without stigma and our mission is to help employers eliminate stigma in the workplace. If you would like to learn more about how your company can better respond to workplace mental illness and stigma, contact us and visit our website at stigmazero.com.