A healthy workforce is directly correlated to high levels of productivity and a business’ positive bottom-line performance. Statistics show that financial and wellness factors troubling an employee lead to, on average, 20 unproductive work hours per month.
Employers can improve the lifetime financial wellness of their businesses by enhancing the productivity of their workforce.
Measuring productivity
Employees’ productivity is generally measured by considering their absenteeism and presenteeism.
Absenteeism refers to the loss of productivity when employees are on sick leave or family responsibility leave; while presenteeism is the loss of productivity while employees are at work but not engaged with their job.
Productivity is affected by an employee’s health, financial stress, work-life balance, personal life impacts, stress, job satisfaction, personal characteristics and the company’s characteristics.
Understanding the problem
Poor health
Healthy employees are more productive and it is in the interest of a business to help their employees to be healthy. Everyday poor health can be caused by acute conditions like flu or by chronic conditions such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Although businesses have limited control over their employees’ acute conditions, they can influence how their chronic conditions are managed and improved. Chronic conditions can be due to hereditary causes or due to modifiable risk behaviours.
Hereditary conditions can be managed through following the correct treatment protocol. Chronic conditions caused by modifiable risk behaviours are mostly caused by four main behaviours: physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, smoking and the harmful use of alcohol. These behaviours lead to conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory illnesses, which causes 60 percent of deaths world-wide. Businesses can encourage employees to change their modifiable risk behaviours.
The above situation causes an increase in absenteeism and presenteeism which causes a downturn in productivity.
Financial stress
The impact of financial stress on the employee includes an increase in physical illnesses which in turn causes an increase in their health expenses and their unproductive hours at work. The business then suffers a negative impact on their bottom line due to the increase in the employee’s absenteeism and presenteeism and increased work-related accidents. In the end, it is both the employee and the business that will experience a decrease in their financial wellness.
Understanding the solution
Regardless of the size of a business, most employees turn to their employer in times of financial difficulty. Seventy-three percent of employees and 64 percent of employers say that retirement and insurance benefits provide peace of mind for the unexpected. Businesses may not be able to assist their employees with all their financial worries but can help by providing new generation employee benefit solutions designed to reduce their financial stress while improving their health.
Integrated solutions designed to help to increase employees’ productivity by reducing their financial stress and improving their financial and physical health are the building blocks for a healthy sustainable business. More well-known benefits such as retirement, insurance and medical aid benefits can be coupled with financial and health rewards to encourage healthy behaviour based on individual employee health profiling. The solution should include health and financial wellness education on member level to encourage them to take responsibility for their own health and financial wellness. Supporting health education benefits, members should also have access to medical advice from qualified doctors.
Such solutions may help employers to enhance the productivity of their workforce by improving their lifestyle through being more active, improving their diet, helping them to quit smoking and taking care of their mental well-being by reducing their financial stress.
New generation employee benefits should also include employer focussed rewards and discounts for taking care of their employees.
You can now help your clients to increase their business’ bottom line by enhancing the productivity of their workforce.
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