Workplace Health
– the fact we cannot ignore
Dr. Wen Rong Chen, R.TCMP
Working everyday with patients of work related disorders, I have to get a deeper look into the fact myself. Thanks for the current research on workplace health, I could understand our situation with more details. For those who aware and approach for help, I am always ready.
Please refer the Self-Care Checklist I designed to learn your health condition.
Costs and Benefits of Workplace Health
Everyone understands numbers. The case is clear – a healthy workplace makes good business sense. Consider the “cost” of a healthy workplace versus an unhealthy workplace:
The Costs of Doing Nothing to Promote Workplace Health
Absenteeism / Productivity Costs
1. Employees with weak employment relations miss an average of 5.9 days due to illness compared to 3.7 days per year for those with a strong relationship (Lowe & Schellenbert, 2001).
2. The cost for those staff experiencing caregiver strain is approximately $1.1 billion/year (Duxbury & Higgins, 2003).
3. Employees with high work-life conflict miss an average of 11.8 days/year (MacBride-King & Bachmann, 1999).
4. The estimated cost of absenteeism due to staff experiencing family to work interference is approximately $450 million/year (Duxbury & Higgins, 2003).
5. Caring for children with asthma is the third leading cause of lost work time for adults in Canada (The ON Lung Association). One in five children in Canada has asthma (The Lung Association).
6. Asthma is estimated to contribute to $2.4 billion in lost productivity in Canada each year. 12% of respondents in the survey said they had missed an average of 34 work days in the past 12 months due to asthma, resulting in 8,160,000 lost days (The Asthma Society of Canada, 2005). In Canada, one in ten adults has asthma (The Lung Association).
7. Active employees take 27% fewer sick days and report 14-25% fewer disability days (Plotnikoff et. al, 2003).
8. It is estimated that 40 minutes/day is lost to the smoking ritual each day/smoker. Each smoker in a workplace will cost their employer an average of $3,396/year in decreased productivity, increased absenteeism, increased life insurance premiums and smoking area costs (Conference Board of Canada, 2006).
9. Tobacco-related diseases cost Ontario employers more than $2.6 billion in loss productivity/year (The Lung Association).
10. An employee with 3 or more risk factors (i.e. sedentary lifestyle, smoker, overweight and drink too much) is absent 50% more often than staff with no such risk factors. The more risk factors someone has, the greater the cost to an employer they are (Shain & Suurvail, 2001).
11. The cost of absenteeism due to staff experiencing role overload is estimated to be $3.1 billion/year (Duxbury & Higgins, 2003).
Employee Benefits Costs
1. Employees with high caregiver strain are 1.6 times more likely to spend $150 or more on prescription medication in a six-month period than employees with low caregiver strain (Duxbury et. al, 2004).
2. Employees with high work to family interference are 1.3 times more likely than those with lower levels to spend $150 or more on prescription medication in a six-month period (Duxbury et. al, 2004).
3. Health care costs are 2x – 3x greater for an employee with 3 or more risk factors (i.e. sedentary lifestyle, smoker, overweight and drink too much) than those with no such risk factors. The more risk factors someone has, the greater the cost to an employer they are (Shain & Suurvail, 2001).
4. Active employees have a 25% reduction in the incidence of injury (Plotnikoff et. al, 2003).
5. 1.4 million working Canadians suffer from depression. In Canada, mental health claims are the fastest growing category of disability costs. Disability (all sources) accounts for 4 – 12% of payroll costs (Wilson et al., 2002).
6. Health care expenditures are approximately 50% higher for those employees reporting higher stress levels (Burton, 2004).
7. This diagram shows that when the psychosocial environment of a workplace is poor or compromised, there are negative consequences to employee health.
Additional information on effort/reward and demand/control can be found in Health Canada’s document Best Advice on Stress Management in the Workplace.
The Hidden Costs
1. Bullying in the workplace may result in: increased turnover, increased absenteeism, decreased productivity, poorer customer service, etc. (Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety).
2. There are many work-related causes of fatigue. Fatigue is difficult to measure and therefore difficult to report on the costs to a workplace but studies report the following effects: reduced productivity/performance; reduced reaction time; increased forgetfulness; increased sick time, absenteeism and turnover; increased medical costs and accident rates (Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety).
3. High work-life conflict is associated with: increased absenteeism; greater perceived stress, depressed mood, and burnout; poorer physical health; poorer job satisfaction; and less commitment to the organization (Canadian Mental Health Association).
4. Indirect costs associated with employees with undiagnosed depression include: poorer quality service delivery and possible customer dissatisfaction, decreased productivity and increased employment costs due to presenteeism (Watson Wyatt, 2003). At any one time, 1 and 20 employees can be experiencing depression (Canadian Mental Health Association).
5. Employee stress costs Canadian businesses approximately $12 billion/year (Vanier Institute of the Family).
6. Increased WSIB rates, increased benefits costs, legal expenses, compromised profits due to error, the costs associated with training replacement workers, decreased productivity, increased absenteeism, etc. These are some of the costs your organization may be facing due to stress in the workplace.
To illustrate, consider the following “Traumatic Accident Model”
developed by the American Institute of Stress:
Source: Burton, 2004
The Costs and Benefits of Promoting Workplace Wellness
Reduced Absenteeism, Improved Productivity and Turnover Rates
1. Pazmac Enterprizes Ltd in Langley, B.C has 70% of its staff of 30 participating weekly with personal trainers. Their average sick days is 0.1 and turnover is almost nil (Canadian Labour and Business Centre, November 2002).
2. A 1987 Fitness Canada Publication notes that if a fitness program prevents just one heart attack of a key staff member, that alone will pay for the cost of the program for the whole year (Sharratt, 1988).
3. Effective asthma management reduces days hospitalized by 77%. This affects workplace productivity whether an employer’s health costs are publicly or privately insured (Pratt, 2001).
4. MDS Nordion’s comprehensive workplace program helped to reduce absenteeism from 5.5 to four days annually and cut turnover to half the industry average (Lowe, 2002).
5. The Canadian Wheat Board has an annual sick rate of 3.8 days/year at a time when Statistics Canada was reporting the average to be 6.2 days as a result of their wellness program which is now over 20 years old (Davie, 2000).
6. Dofasco’s comprehensive program has helped them to see lost time injury rates fall by 66% between 1991 and 2001(Canadian Labour and Business Centre, November 2002).
7. Workplace health initiatives helped American Express Canada see turnover rates drop to 23% between 1998 and 2000. The industry average is 40% (Canadian Labour and Business Centre, November 2002).
8. WCB premiums at Rideau Construction have fallen from $6.12/$1,000 of payroll to $5.00 since focusing on human resource management. Plus no employee has ever filed a claim with the board (DiGiacomo, 2002).
Improved Benefits Costs
1. For each employee who gets access to treatment for their depression, the employer will save between $5,000 and $10,000 per year in the cost of prescription drugs, sick leave, and average wage replacement (Wilson et al., 2002).
2. Reducing role overload could save your company between $36 – $50/year per employee in prescription drugs (Duxbury et al, 2004).
3. DuPont found that 11,726 disability days were saved over a two year period after implementing their health promotion program (Bachmann, 2002).
4. Irving Paper saw their STD costs fall by over 50% between 1995 and 2000 (Canadian Labour and Business Centre, November 2002). Not only that but Human Resources Manager, Peter McIntyre adds that employees who were on sick leave “come back earlier on a modified work program because we made the job more user-friendly” (Van Den Broek, 2003).
5. One benefit of promoting workplace health at Dofasco was a decrease in WSIB premium rates by 63% between 1995 and 2001 (Canadian Labour and Business Centre, November 2002).
Money Spent is Money Saved
1. The wellness program at Canada Life Insurance has been around for over 25 years and boasts savings of almost $7 for every $1 spent (Davie, 2000).
2. Husky Injection Moulding Systems estimates it has saved $8 million as a direct result of the $4 million invested in workplace environment and employee well-being (Human Resources and Skills Development Canada).
3. An initiative by the Corporate Health team at Telus helped save the company $3 for every $1 spent (Lowe, 2002).
4. A wellness program designed to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in blue-collar workers saw ROI rates of $4 for every $1 invested (Lowe, 2002).
Acupuncture and Chinese medicine could help work place health.Don’t forget if you are covered for acupuncture treatment, just take the use of it.
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