When health is absent, Wisdom cannot reveal itself, Art cannot manifest, Strength cannot be exerted, Wealth becomes useless, And reason is powerless." — Herophilus 300 B.C.
Our work places are either a great place to promote health or, conversely, to contribute to the health problem. Our work environments are experiencing an emerging health crisis from longer workdays, deskbound occupations, access to poor quality foods and poor physical activity. In many cases they are contributing to a deterioration in employee health as our work and the workplace has the potential to have a significant effect on the mental, physical, economic and social wellbeing of workers.
Major concerns in the work environment are work-related stress, obesity, diabetes, cardio vascular disease, fatigue, poor sleep and the many other conditions that come from these.
Many of our workplaces, for example, have increased the risk of putting on weight due to sedentary practices, stress and long and awkward work hours.
This, of course, has the potential to lead to many other chronic health conditions, which cost the individual, community and employers.
From an employer’s perspective poor health has the potential to reduce the quality of work and productivity within many workplaces and is likely costing the economy billions of dollars in lost workplace productivity alone.
While the costs of workplace productivity are significant it is also likely that some obesogenic (increasing the risk of putting on weight) environments are likely to be the focus of legal action as the rates of illness and obesity increase. This is particularly the case for inflexible workplaces, long hours and shiftwork.
Benefits flow to the community
An employee’s health and productivity at work is not only affected by their work environment but also by factors that are not work related. These factors vary between individuals and depend on their chosen lifestyle outside of work.
But through empowering staff members towards healthy lifestyles, the overall health management of individuals will benefit not only the company but also the broader community.
Wellness in the workplace is influenced by many different factors including the communication between co-workers and employers, physical demands, especially in sedentary occupations, and the eating habits, lifestyles of employees and much more.
When it comes to common health issues of most employees, wellness programs can provide an easy and cost effective solution.
Fatigue, stress, depression and obesity are commonly interrelated and increasingly common in most workplaces.
The workplace has been viewed as an attractive place for wellness programs as it has established communication channels and provides a convenient, familiar physical and social setting. In addition, it serves to benefit the employers from the improved health of employees.
Many factors contribute towards the creation of an employee who is able to work consistently at a high level of efficiency and productivity; however health is one of the most important determinants.
Cost benefits from healthier employees
The costs of unhealthy workers are usually measured by employers in terms of easily quantifiable direct health costs such as medical claims, disability funds and compensation payouts. In the US, where figures are more easily accessed because the employer has been traditionally responsible for health care cost, thriving employees have 41% lower health-related costs to the employer compared with employees who are struggling, a difference of $2,993 per person. For every 10,000 employees, this represents a difference of nearly $30 million to the employer.
In the US... thriving employees have 41% lower health-related costs to the employer compared with employees who are struggling, a difference of $2,993 per person.
Yet when looking at the health/productivity costs borne by employers, only a small portion of these expenditures are direct medical costs. Indirect costs are more difficult to distinguish and measure as they include those incurred from employee mortality, absenteeism and the reduced productivity and presenteeism including poor concentration and focus, low output, and disruption of other workers evident in an employee while still working.
An employee’s health behaviors are strong predictors of job performance and absenteeism. Many studies have demonstrated the link between poor health factors and absence from work including positive associations between absenteeism and obesity, stress, physical inactivity, and hypertension. While the frequency and severity of poor health are directly related to days absent from work, healthier workers work more and are away less.
The loss of a qualified professional due to moving to a new job, illness or even death can often be difficult and costly for the organisation to replace. The cost of rehiring and retraining a suitable replacement could result in large organisational outlays of time and money, well in excess of $100,000. Not only will a new candidate be difficult and costly to find, but an immense amount of expertise, experience and organisational knowledge will be lost.
Cases of karoshi
Karoshi is a term coined in Japan, literally translating into “death from overwork” in English. Karoshi is described as “unexplained death” thought to arise due to a combination of elevated working hours, high stress and poor health, with the major medical causes of death being heart attack and stroke. In Japan, working weeks that exceed 60 hours are not an exception.
The first case of karoshi was reported in 1969 where a 29 year old married man died from a stroke and his death could not be attributed to anything other than occupational stress and chronic overwork. In 1994, the Japanese Government’s Economic Planning Agency in the Institute of Economics estimated the number of karoshi deaths at around 1,000 or 5% of all deaths as a result of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disease each year within the 25-59 age group.
In the US, the cost of turnover per person employed who is healthier is 35% lower than that of those who are struggling. For every 10,000 employees, this represents $19.5 million. Although turnover is more common among younger employees, higher wellbeing was predictive of lower turnover and lower turnover costs in the next year for younger and older employees alike.
Those who were struggling or suffering in overall wellbeing were more than twice as likely as those who were thriving to say they would look for another job if the job market improves.
This means that the actions that employers take today to improve health- in addition to improving job performance- are likely to have important implications on the moves employees make in the future.
Presenteeism and lost productivity
Presenteeism represents a cost that is difficult to quantity but is a large contributor to lost productivity. Many people are under the flawed assumption that when people are at work they are productive. But if employees are sick, injured, stressed or burned-out in the workplace, they are not working to full capacity.
Many people are under the flawed assumption that when people are at work they are productive.
Presenteeism is the worker coming in who shouldn’t and in the process is not just less productive but may also be reducing the productivity of other employees. This doesn’t just occur over health but when a person is sick they may be slowing everyone else down. Presenteeisms result in a negative impact not only on the quantity of work completed, but also on the quality of products, services, decisions, and co-worker and customer interactions.
Although presenteeism cannot be directly quantified in a straightforward manner, many studies now suggest it may be one of the biggest costs to employers. So you might be better off staying away from work when you are sick.
Unhealthy workers are also more likely to have workplace accidents while healthy and focused employees are less likely to endanger themselves and other co-workers through negligent behavior caused by poor physical and psychological health. A number of studies have now found that investing in wellness programs and the health of employees can reduce accidents. This includes accidents on the way home from work if an employee is fatigued or distracted with their health.
Accidents are expensive for all companies because of downtime, the resources that need to be dedicated to investigation, lost productivity from injured workers and workers’ compensation. In Australia, workers’ compensation costs are unacceptably high, reflecting relatively high frequency rates of occupational injuries, which may be prevented through a wellness program.
In Australia, workers’ compensation costs are unacceptably high, reflecting relatively high frequency rates of occupational injuries
Cost of stress
The direct cost of stress is more than $20 billion to the Australian economy, and around two thirds of that to Australian employers because of stress-related presenteeism and absenteeism. Ninety five percent of all claims for mental disorders in the past ten years are for mental stress. These claims are the most expensive type of workers’ compensation claim due to their typically lengthy periods of work absence.
Professionals make more mental stress claims than any other occupation, mostly for work pressure.
This is despite the fact that the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Work-related Injuries Survey 2009–10 showed that 70% of workers who reported they experienced work-related mental stress did not apply for workers’ compensation.
Productivity is affected heavily by seasonal illnesses and their available treatments. Allergies are a highly prevalent condition in the general population affecting people in varying ways. Symptoms of allergies include itching and irritation of the nose, watery nasal discharge, nasal congestion, sneezing and are often accompanied by fatigue, weakness, malaise, irritability and decreased appetite. Studies now show that individuals with allergy disorders generally score lower on tests on social functioning, role limitation, mental health and energy / fatigue and pain compared to controls. In the US, allergy disorders result more than four million workdays lost per year.
Effect of medications
However, it is not just the disorder the can have an effect on productivity; the drugs used to treat the illness may also affect productivity levels. Medications are also often a hidden cost in presenteeism, accidents and lost work productivity. The use of sedating antihistamines for allergies had a 50% higher risk of on-the-job injury than control subjects.
The use of sedating antihistamines for allergies had a 50% higher risk of on-the-job injury than control subjects.
Another study found that driving impairments exhibited due to the use of a sedating antihistamine were worse than that connected with a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.1%. In a study of nearly 6000 employees, those who used sedating antihistamines experienced on average an 8% reduction in daily work output compared to those who used non-sedating antihistamines. Many other medications including pain killers and cholesterol lowering drugs can result in lost productivity. The fatigue and muscle soreness created by cholesterol lowering drugs may impact productivity, especially those with more physical work, while their effect on memory may be even more problematic. A colleague of mine recalled the effect these drugs were having on the memory of police officers who were called to be witnesses. Awkward eh.
The message is that it is in everyone’s best interests to promote health, both the individual and the company they work for. The good thing in all of this is that companies are increasingly adopting workplace wellness programs, which, if adopted well, can make a big difference to the health of their employees.
Dr Peter Dingle (PhD) has spent the past 30 years as a researcher, educator, author and advocate for a common sense approach to health and wellbeing. He has a PhD in the field of environmental toxicology and is not a medical doctor. He is Australia’s leading motivational health speaker and has 14 books in publication.