15 Nov Corporate Wellbeing in the workplace: Why you should engage in workplace health and wellbeing

Corporate Wellbeing in the workplace…

Corporate Wellbeing and the health of your workforce is essential to the success of your company’s current and future goals. Having a healthy and well motivated workforce could result in better staff retention rates, lower levels of sickness and higher levels of performance.

In 2008, Working for a healthier tomorrow, was introduced, a government-commissioned review by Dame Carol Black, emphasised the importance of corporate wellbeing. This placed health, work and corporate wellbeing at the top of the political and business agenda. The Black review and other reports showed that poor health of the workforce is a big cost to employers through both increased absenteeism and lowered job performance and is a concern which can no longer be avoided. The facts below underline the cost of poor health amongst the workforce.

• 30 million working days are lost in the UK because of occupational illness and injury. They cost the economy £30 billion – approximately 3% of the GDP per year. According to the Confederation of British Industry, sickness absence can cost roughly £495 per employee per year, a high cost for small and medium businesses.
• 3 million days of work were lost in 2013-2014 due to stress, depression or anxiety – an average of 23 days per person.
• Estimates suggest that stress and back pain are costly conditions, costing the British economy £3.7 billion and £5 billion per year respectively.
• Accidents and injuries are estimated to cost an additional £512 million annually.
• The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) estimates that musculoskeletal disorders were responsible for 9.5 million lost working days in 2005/6.
• Employees suffering from stress are also more likely to report depression and other psychosomatic complaints. This results in greater need for recovery due to exhaustion and fatigue compared to workers without high levels of work-related stress.
• Research shows that smokers cost employers 64 minutes a day in lost productivity.
• The costs of ill health for many employers, given the ageing population and the increase in chronic disease, will only grow and is enough to justify a comprehensive wellness scheme.

This speaks volumes about the importance of implementing health initiatives within the workplace, as it puts extra strain and unnecessary costs for the business which can be easily avoided with the appropriate wellbeing programme in place.

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