Health promotion, wellness and productivity > Taking aim: how health impacts productivity

Health issues impact productivity in two main ways.

1. Absenteeism – when staff take time off work due to ill health; and

2. Presenteeism – when staff in poor health go to work, but perform poorly.

Research shows that employees who are healthy (not just free from sickness) perform best. The difference is substantial and impacts productivity.

One study demonstrated the average:

- healthy employee works 143 effective hours per month

- unhealthy employee works only 49 effective hours per month.

If a workplace health program is to provide a good return for investment, it must ‘take aim’ at both absenteeism and presenteeism. A logical first action is to gain an understanding of the main health conditions that lower productivity in the workplace.

The culprits: 10 conditions that lower productivity

Below is a table that outlines 10 health related productivity-drainers.

The ten conditions that cause the greatest loss of productivity are listed in the first column. The percent of employees who report experience of the condition is listed in the second column. In the third column is the proportion of lost productivity from that condition that occurs through presenteesim.

The number one culprit is fatigue, with 56% of employees saying that they experience fatigue. The majority of lost productivity from fatigue is via presenteeism, as opposed to absenteeism, however staff turnover and compensation costs also contribute.

Top ten productivity affecting conditions

Health condition	Percentage of Australian workers subject to the condition	Proportion of productivity cost due to presenteeism
Fatigue	56%	71%
Depression	12%	73%
Back/neck pain	29%	68%
Sleeping problem	n/a	73%
Other chronic pain	n/a	44%
Arthritis	11%	56%
Hypertension	11%	60%
Obesity	28%*	54%
High cholesterol	9%	58%
Anxiety	10%	76%

# All from Medibank the health of Australia’s workforce pp. 2 – 4
^ Health and Productivity as a Business Strategy, Loeppke et al, JOEM vol. 49 no. 7 pp. 717-718

Productivity defenders: Rehabilitation and risk reduction

In aiming to address health related productivity there are two goals for the employer to consider:

Rehabilitating employees who have a condition; and
Reducing the risk that employees will develop particular health conditions.

Helping employees who already have a condition is usually a matter of providing access to appropriate services, within the organisation or externally.

The preventative (or risk reducing) goals of health and wellbeing programs are more complex and are discussed below. But first there are some decisions to be made…