Absenteeism/Productivity Costs - Employers - Healthy Workplace - Peel Public Health

Costs Your bottom line is impacted not only by the health of your employees but also by the health of your organization.

Here are some provincial and national statistics to demonstrate the costs of doing nothing to promote a healthy workplace.

The Costs of Doing Nothing to Promote Workplace Health

Absenteeism / Productivity Costs

Employees with weak employment relations miss an average of 5.9 days due to illness compared to 3.7 days per year for those with a strong relationship (Lowe & Schellenbert, 2001).
The cost for those staff experiencing caregiver strain is approximately $1.1 billion/year (Duxbury & Higgins, 2003).
Employees with high work-life conflict miss an average of 11.8 days/year (MacBride-King & Bachmann, 1999).
The estimated cost of absenteeism due to staff experiencing family to work interference is approximately $450 million/year (Duxbury & Higgins, 2003).
Caring for children with asthma is the third leading cause of lost work time for adults in Canada (The ON Lung Association). One in five children in Canada has asthma (The Lung Association).
Asthma is estimated to contribute to $2.4 billion in lost productivity in Canada each year. 12% of respondents in the survey said they had missed an average of 34 work days in the past 12 months due to asthma, resulting in 8,160,000 lost days (The Asthma Society of Canada, 2005). In Canada, one in ten adults has asthma (The Lung Association).
Active employees take 27% fewer sick days and report 14-25% fewer disability days (Plotnikoff et. al, 2003).
It is estimated that 40 minutes/day is lost to the smoking ritual each day/smoker. Each smoker in a workplace will cost their employer an average of $3,396/year in decreased productivity, increased absenteeism, increased life insurance premiums and smoking area costs (Conference Board of Canada, 2006).
Tobacco-related diseases cost Ontario employers more than $2.6 billion in loss productivity/year (The Lung Association).
An employee with 3 or more risk factors (i.e. sedentary lifestyle, smoker, overweight and drink too much) is absent 50% more often than staff with no such risk factors. The more risk factors someone has, the greater the cost to an employer they are (Shain & Suurvail, 2001).
The cost of absenteeism due to staff experiencing role overload is estimated to be $3.1 billion/year (Duxbury & Higgins, 2003).

Consider how doing nothing affects benefits costs.

Facts and Stats to Make the Case for Workplace Health