In this era of tight competition and multi-dimensional fight, employees are expected to dedicate a vast amount of their time to the work. The ever increasing loads of work expect employees to spend at least 40 hours a week in the office. With the help of modern techs, many employees are even attached to their work outside regular office hours. Email or text messages don’t follow any particular time frame to interrupt personal life. Consistent work-association like this has a diminishing return of damaged health. People are most likely to work in an office environment where there is a lack of flexibility and doesn’t offer space for physical exercises. It leads to life-long health issues like fatness and overweight. The negative outcomes have some direct impacts on the business, which we are going to discuss broadly.
It lowers employee productivity
Employees with unhealthy bodies tend to miss work. The pattern of regular absenteeism at work will hurt their overall performance in the long run. Besides, employees with chronic health problems have to attend work even if they are not physically fit for it. The chances of sick employees providing their best performance are close to none. The performance downgrade is similar for employees who choose to work carelessly or come to work with infectious diseases. Nevertheless, to say that this hurts the customer service too.
The damage includes a higher medical expense
Lower productivity rate is just one of the crucial problems caused by sick employees- the list goes on. Businesses based in the United States will have to carry a higher insurance rate for such workers. Sickness is just one side of the problem; when an employee has crucial concerns like fatness or overweight, the company has to pay a premium to cover that issue. It is a problem for the employer as who has to find ways to cover the extra cost. Employees inside the company will also be affected by the higher insurance cost as it will have an indirect impact on their medical services.
Improve your employees’ health
The meaning of health insurance to most employers is the payment for physical health sickness. The insurance company only pays when an employee gets sick and they do not provide any effective benefit when employees are healthier. However, some employers are now concerned about their team and encourage them to stay physically fit through different healthy activities.
For instance, many companies utilize employee engagement app and ask employees to go through fitness plans with this tool. It is important because the lack of physical activities cause employees to get sick and many times lead to chronic health conditions. With employee engagement app, business leaders can encourage their team to exercise and improve their health. This will not only keep the productivity rate higher but also reduce the overall health insurance cost in the long term.
Employee health and business productivity have both direct and indirect relations. By encouraging your employees to keep better health, you can improve their performance at work and make them more work efficient. Furthermore, by ensuring that employees are using their sick leaves for actual physical sickness, you will be able to cut down overall sick day-offs and guarantee higher work engagement inside your team.