From the Financial Times, September 13, 2017
It has been recognized globally that illness is not merely an employee’s personal problem but also a problem that could bring huge costs for both companies and the society. Take UK as an example, it has been estimated that 137.3 million working days were lost due to sickness or injury in the UK in 2016, which is equivalent to 4.3 days per worker. The related costs, together with costs through lower productivity and increased healthcare spending, have undoubtedly harmed the economy. According to statistics from the OECD, the cost of mental illness alone has accounted for approximately 4.5 percent of UK’s GDP. Clearly, it is now of vital importance for the society and companies to take initiatives to protect employees’ health and well-being.
What would be the most effective initiatives or interventions that could help the society and companies achieve this goal? In a recent article published in the Health & Fitness column of the Financial Times, Sebastien Ash, Hannah Murphy and Hasan Chowdhury discussed about a wide range of initiatives or interventions that have been prevalently used by companies in UK, such as screening programs, healthy eating initiatives, physical fitness initiatives, and mental health interventions.
Interested to know how these interventions have been used and how they have been helping to promote workplace health? Click here to read the full article.