Employee absences carry a heavy cost for many employers and have a large impact on revenue and productivity according to a study conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) of 700 of its members.
The National Wellness Survey recently conducted in Canada shows that health, work behavior and the value of human capital are linked. In simple terms, employee health status directly influences employee work behavior, work attendance and on the job performance. Therefore developing healthier employees will result in a more productive workforce.
The American Journal of Health Promotion reports that high-performing companies regularly measure health status of employees as a component of their overall risk management strategy.
Majority of companies in Tanzania are providing health insurance coverage for their employees. Forward thinking companies are recognizing that employees spend the majority of their waking hours in the workplace and are introducing comprehensive Wellness Programs focusing on healthy lifestyles and prevention.
Corporate wellness programs are part of a growing trend to fight sky rocketing cost of health care and health insurance premiums. Statistics have routinely shown that employers who utilize corporate wellness programs have decreased absenteeism, reduced health care expenses and increased productivity among employees. The reduction in absenteeism varies but most organizations implementing wellness programs have seen improvement in this area.
According to SHRM, The causes of absenteeism fall into five main categories: Personal illness (34%), Family issues (22%), Personal needs (18%), entitlement mentality (13%) and Stress (13%). Because a person’s odds of becoming ill or feeling stressed are strongly associated with overall health risks based on lifestyle, it is reasonable to assume that these health risks are largely responsible for many absences.
Because poor health is so often due to potentially modifiable risk factors – namely, overweight/obesity, physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, alcohol consumption and tobacco usage, it is important to identify risk factor prevalence in a given workforce to determine risk factor related absenteeism and presenteeism costs.
Presenteeism is classified as being at work, but because of illness or other health conditions, not fully functioning. Presenteeism has surfaced as one of the most pressing lost productivity issues in all types of worksites.
Absenteeism and presenteeism make up a large portion of overall employee costs and can be influenced directly by targeted interventions.
Source: SHRM Foundation Effective Practice Guideline Series Titled: “Promoting Employee Well-Being – Wellness Strategies to improve Health performance and the Bottomline:
It is essential for organizations that have never measured risk-related absenteeism and presenteeism rates, a baseline assessment is need to determine the relative impact of health risk rates on employee productivity for appropriate action to be taken. Various tools are available for such assessment.
Make sure your organizational culture is suitable for building and sustaining a proactive, employee centered wellness program and its affiliated policies, incentives and strategies within an integrated HR network. Take time to accurately analyze your organizations most pressing health and work behavior challenges so as to plan targeted strategies.