Do you know what your sick employees cost you?
Corporate Wellness
– Your corporate air travel expenses might increase, without you
travelling more or airlines raising their fees.
Bottom line is – unhealthy employees reduce your bottom line, your profit. Not to mention the amount of stress it puts on your shoulders for missed deadlines and unnecessary mistakes.
When I started my research about corporate wellness, I was amazed on the huge impact that the health and wellness of employees have on any business. Absenteeism is up, productivity is down. And I’m only using these two as examples. Just on a personal level, if you’re like me, you might relate to this: I found that in my career, my below average health sabotaged my goals and ambition.
In South Africa, businesses is losing R19 billion due to absenteeism.1 That is a huge effect on the bottom line of most companies and the country’s economy.
Just to illustrate the point how corporate wellness programmes can turn these situations around, here’s two international examples:2
“Johnson and Johnson reduced their absenteeism rate by 15% within two years of introducing their wellness program.
Human Resources Executive, April 1993”
“A NASA study reported a 12.5% increase in productivity in their fitness program participants versus non-participants. They also found that participants were able to improve their work performance as well as enhance their concentration and decision-making powers.
Company Employee Fitness Programs, The Association for Fitness in Business, 1991”
Although these reports on statistics are not always fun to read, it helps us to understand the financial impact that employee’s health have on a business. Another study showed that for every dollar DuPont invested in their corporate wellness programme, it returned within two years, $1.42 in reduced absenteeism.2
We all know that people absent from work, especially because of illness cost a lot. Even when the employee is at work, but feeling terrible from a common cold, his productivity is very low. Most of the day is spend staring at a computer, fiddling with tissues. When the phone rings, it sounds like this: “Wholluh. Nuh, Ie can’d healb yah nuh.” (Translated: Hallo. No, I can’t help you now.)
I’ve done a quick search on Google, to find out how wellness programmes fits into South African companies. I took the Top 10 large companies in Deloitte’s Best Company to Work For Survey 20083 as a point of reference. Eight of these companies clearly promote that they have a wellness program in place for their employees.
With proper management, some of the money lost due to absenteeism could be saved and used in productive business practice. Discovery Health also did a series of studies of their members’ sickness expenses. Their findings was that people who lives a healthy lifestyle (very active in the Vitality programme) “were admitted to hospital less frequent, their hospital stays were shorter and their hospital cost were lower”4 than those not so active or not active at all in the Vitality programme.
That is the facts. The CE of Corporate Absenteeism Management System (Cams), Johnny Johnson “says under the Occupational Health & Safety Act companies are required to provide safe working environments for their employees. But confidentiality issues make it difficult for employers to become actively involved in managing a person's health. "It's easier to outsource this function to an independent provider,"”1
Here are some practical things that you, as a business owner, director, wellness officer or HR manager could do to ensure that your employees are healthy and happy.
• Put incentives in place for gym memberships, wellness activity involvement, etc.
• Some larger businesses and government department have in-house gyms.
• Advertise selected wellness services and events on the company’s intranet.
• Invest in activities such as corporate teambuilding.5
• Motivate and educate employees to live a healthy lifestyle through corporate and personal wellness coaching.6
• Laughter coaching is something with great promise.7
• Make use of travelling massage therapists.
• Place a filtered water dispenser in the office.
• Encourage employees to walk more, for example to climb stairs, rather than using the elevator, or to park far away from the office building.
In 2000, American airlines lost $275 million due to excessive weight of passengers8. Don’t let an airline penalize your company for the extra weight of your delegate.
Or better even, convince your fellow board members to improve your own and their health on company expense.
References:
1. http://www.camsolutions.co.za/no-show-a-46.html
2. http://preventdisease.com/worksite_wellness/worksite_wellness.html
3. http://www.bestcompany.co.za/default.asp?pageID=511&menuID=09
4. Discovery magazine; Winter 2009, Issue 36, pg 56
5. www.laseradventures.co.za
6. www.health2u.co.za/corporate_wellness.html
7. www.laughtercoaching.co.za
8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity
About the Author:
Francois du Toit is a wellness coach, specializing in personal and corporate wellness coaching. He designs, along with his clients their personal health plan. Contact him at francois@health2u.co.za or through his website www.health2u.co.za.
Bottom line is – unhealthy employees reduce your bottom line, your profit. Not to mention the amount of stress it puts on your shoulders for missed deadlines and unnecessary mistakes.
When I started my research about corporate wellness, I was amazed on the huge impact that the health and wellness of employees have on any business. Absenteeism is up, productivity is down. And I’m only using these two as examples. Just on a personal level, if you’re like me, you might relate to this: I found that in my career, my below average health sabotaged my goals and ambition.
In South Africa, businesses is losing R19 billion due to absenteeism.1 That is a huge effect on the bottom line of most companies and the country’s economy.
Just to illustrate the point how corporate wellness programmes can turn these situations around, here’s two international examples:2
“Johnson and Johnson reduced their absenteeism rate by 15% within two years of introducing their wellness program.
Human Resources Executive, April 1993”
“A NASA study reported a 12.5% increase in productivity in their fitness program participants versus non-participants. They also found that participants were able to improve their work performance as well as enhance their concentration and decision-making powers.
Company Employee Fitness Programs, The Association for Fitness in Business, 1991”
Although these reports on statistics are not always fun to read, it helps us to understand the financial impact that employee’s health have on a business. Another study showed that for every dollar DuPont invested in their corporate wellness programme, it returned within two years, $1.42 in reduced absenteeism.2
We all know that people absent from work, especially because of illness cost a lot. Even when the employee is at work, but feeling terrible from a common cold, his productivity is very low. Most of the day is spend staring at a computer, fiddling with tissues. When the phone rings, it sounds like this: “Wholluh. Nuh, Ie can’d healb yah nuh.” (Translated: Hallo. No, I can’t help you now.)
I’ve done a quick search on Google, to find out how wellness programmes fits into South African companies. I took the Top 10 large companies in Deloitte’s Best Company to Work For Survey 20083 as a point of reference. Eight of these companies clearly promote that they have a wellness program in place for their employees.
With proper management, some of the money lost due to absenteeism could be saved and used in productive business practice. Discovery Health also did a series of studies of their members’ sickness expenses. Their findings was that people who lives a healthy lifestyle (very active in the Vitality programme) “were admitted to hospital less frequent, their hospital stays were shorter and their hospital cost were lower”4 than those not so active or not active at all in the Vitality programme.
That is the facts. The CE of Corporate Absenteeism Management System (Cams), Johnny Johnson “says under the Occupational Health & Safety Act companies are required to provide safe working environments for their employees. But confidentiality issues make it difficult for employers to become actively involved in managing a person's health. "It's easier to outsource this function to an independent provider,"”1
Here are some practical things that you, as a business owner, director, wellness officer or HR manager could do to ensure that your employees are healthy and happy.
• Put incentives in place for gym memberships, wellness activity involvement, etc.
• Some larger businesses and government department have in-house gyms.
• Advertise selected wellness services and events on the company’s intranet.
• Invest in activities such as corporate teambuilding.5
• Motivate and educate employees to live a healthy lifestyle through corporate and personal wellness coaching.6
• Laughter coaching is something with great promise.7
• Make use of travelling massage therapists.
• Place a filtered water dispenser in the office.
• Encourage employees to walk more, for example to climb stairs, rather than using the elevator, or to park far away from the office building.
In 2000, American airlines lost $275 million due to excessive weight of passengers8. Don’t let an airline penalize your company for the extra weight of your delegate.
Or better even, convince your fellow board members to improve your own and their health on company expense.
References:
1. http://www.camsolutions.co.za/no-show-a-46.html
2. http://preventdisease.com/worksite_wellness/worksite_wellness.html
3. http://www.bestcompany.co.za/default.asp?pageID=511&menuID=09
4. Discovery magazine; Winter 2009, Issue 36, pg 56
5. www.laseradventures.co.za
6. www.health2u.co.za/corporate_wellness.html
7. www.laughtercoaching.co.za
8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity
About the Author:
Francois du Toit is a wellness coach, specializing in personal and corporate wellness coaching. He designs, along with his clients their personal health plan. Contact him at francois@health2u.co.za or through his website www.health2u.co.za.
