We were very interested to see the article in this month’s FM World in relation to Productivity with only 19% of the Think Tank responders noting it wasn’t a key theme within their workplace.
It is interesting that actually, productivity goes hand-in-hand with presenteeism and yet the majority of workplaces only measure the effects of absenteeism and missing the much larger cost of presenteeism. This is mainly due to the complexity of measuring presenteeism as opposed to the relative simplicity of measuring that of absenteeism – but the impact of presenteeism can be three times that of absenteeism.
In a recent case study, we (The Markland Consultancy) have undertaken with a large Corporate, found a 26.94% lost productivity costing one site, of 500 employees, a total of £3.8 million per annum.
So why are so many businesses in the dark? Because of the complexity of measuring presenteeism, businesses tend to implement strategies to negate productivity loss based on a “scatter gun” approach (no where else in their business strategy is this approach used). They introduce interventions whether it is healthy eating initiatives, exercise programmes, environment changes, etc with off-the -shelf programmes provided by third party suppliers in the belief that by doing “something” it will have a positive effect.
This is not the case! In fact, this approach can be as disengaging as it can be engaging but also, there are no measures to validate its success and its impact in terms of ROI or VOI.
Additionally, with increased demand on pension pots, health and social care, public services are already failing to keep up. Therefore, by default, there is a cost to businesses, as ill health among working people has an impact on the effectiveness with which they perform their jobs and their availability for work.
Health and Wellbeing is not a “nice to have” it is an essential investment tool returning ROI and VOI. However, to realise the benefits they need to be implemented correctly and targeted to meet the analysed needs of employees.
Productivity loss and presenteeism impacts need to be analysed, statistically verified in order to establish priorities which can then help businesses determined what interventions need to be implemented to meet the needs of “their” employees and then measure the productivity improvements against the original baseline analysis.
Therefore, businesses need to be a move from a “scatter gun” to “targeted” interventions based on employee needs analysis, to truly verify productivity gains through health and wellbeing interventions.
in relation to Productivity with only 19% of the Think Tank responders noting it wasn’t a key theme within their workplace.
It is interesting that actually, productivity goes hand-in-hand with presenteeism and yet the majority of workplaces only measure the effects of absenteeism and missing the much larger cost of presenteeism. This is mainly due to the complexity of measuring presenteeism as opposed to the relative simplicity of measuring that of absenteeism – but the impact of presenteeism can be three times that of absenteeism.
In a recent case study, we (The Markland Consultancy) have undertaken with a large Corporate, found a 26.94% lost productivity costing one site, of 500 employees, a total of £3.8 million per annum.
So why are so many businesses in the dark? Because of the complexity of measuring presenteeism, businesses tend to implement strategies to negate productivity loss based on a “scatter gun” approach (no where else in their business strategy is this approach used). They introduce interventions whether it is healthy eating initiatives, exercise programmes, environment changes, etc with off-the -shelf programmes provided by third party suppliers in the belief that by doing “something” it will have a positive effect.
This is not the case! In fact, this approach can be as disengaging as it can be engaging but also, there are no measures to validate its success and its impact in terms of ROI or VOI.
Additionally, with increased demand on pension pots, health and social care, public services are already failing to keep up. Therefore, by default, there is a cost to businesses, as ill health among working people has an impact on the effectiveness with which they perform their jobs and their availability for work.
Health and Wellbeing is not a “nice to have” it is an essential investment tool returning ROI and VOI. However, to realise the benefits they need to be implemented correctly and targeted to meet the analysed needs of employees.
Productivity loss and presenteeism impacts need to be analysed, statistically verified in order to establish priorities which can then help businesses determined what interventions need to be implemented to meet the needs of “their” employees and then measure the productivity improvements against the original baseline analysis.
Therefore, businesses need to be a move from a “scatter gun” to “targeted” interventions based on employee needs analysis, to truly verify productivity gains through health and wellbeing interventions.