Unhealthy employees costing UK firms ‘£57billion a year’
Published: 17 December 2015
Did you know that unhealthy employees are costing British firms more than one month a year in lost productivity? A study carried out by VitalityHealth, Mercer, the University of Cambridge and RAND Europe of 32,538 workers across the UK revealed that more than one third of workers suffer from a chronic condition, such as heart disease or diabetes.
The survey revealed British companies are losing on average 23.5 days of productive time per employee each year, as staff take time off sick and underperform in the office as a result of ill-health.
This is equivalent to each worker losing more than an entire working month of productive time annually. Translated into monetary terms, unhealthy lifestyles and poor health are costing British firms £57billion a year in lost productivity.
However, research from Britain’s Healthiest Company (BHC), shows that workplace wellness programmes can support employees to improve their health. The 25 per cent of companies with the largest health promotion budgets saw an eight per cent year-on-year improvement in the proportion of employees in good or excellent health, and a 16 per cent year-on-year reduction in productivity loss.
Shaun Subel, director at VitalityHealth, said: “The findings of the Britain’s Healthiest Company research should serve as a wake-up call for UK firms to do more to improve the health and wellbeing of their staff. The data shows that organisations with an authentic and positive culture of wellness see increased productivity from their employees. We would therefore urge all companies, big or small, to protect their bottom line by taking an active role in improving employee wellbeing.”
