AUSTRALIAN WORKERS with poor health take up to nine times more annual sick days than workers with good health, recent research has found.
AUSTRALIAN WORKERS with poor health take up to nine times more annual sick days than workers with good health, recent research has found.
Furthermore, the healthiest employees are nearly three times more productive while at work than the least healthy – 140 effective working hours per month versus 45 effective hours worked per month.
The research, conducted by Medibank Private, also found that employees with poor health and lifestyles have higher levels of “presenteeism” (being unproductive while at work).
“For HR professionals, health can no longer be thought of as a government and society issue – it’s a critical business issue,” said Clive Pinder, managing director of wellbeing consultancy vielife Group Limited.
The research demonstrates the monetary link between employee health issues and critical business drivers like productivity and absence, he said, and reflects US and European research which has found employees in good health are up to 23 per cent more productive than those in poor health.
“This equates to a day a week in increased productivity and means that HR professionals have a real opportunity to impact upon the productivity of its workforce,” Pinder said.
The Medibank Private research, which encompassed 3,620 workers, also found 53 per cent feel overwhelmed with pressure and stress a lot of the time, while 28 per cent are clinically obese and a further 34 per cent are overweight.
Pinder also pointed to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures which found that illness costs Australian businesses $37 billion per year. Furthermore, Health Services Australia research found that in any given week, 4 per cent of the Australian workforce is absent, costing Australian business $7 billion each year.
Lifestyle factors such as smoking, drinking, lack of physical activity and excess weight contribute to this absenteeism and lost productivity for Australian employers, according to Medibank Private chief operating officer, Simon Blair.
“Employers have got to stop thinking that absenteeism is something they can’t control because it’s caused by random illnesses such as viruses,” he said.
“The survey results suggest that many workplace absences are the result of workplace stress and lifestyle factors – things we can influence through regular physical activity, healthy diets, stress management and adequate sleep.”
