A practical guide to improving your employee engagement and productivity

While absence costs have been long studied and quantified, recent research

has shown that there is another important factor contributing to loss of

productivity – presenteeism. Presenteeism is newly studied, but there is

already evidence to show it’s a major cost for organisations that needs to be

addressed. In the recent Buck Consultants’ Global Survey of Health Promotion

and Workplace Wellness Strategies, 91% of UK corporations surveyed said

that improving worker productivity and reducing presenteeism is an important

or very important objective of their wellness programme strategy1.

For the purpose of this article, presenteeism is defined as being at work

but not being fully productive. This may be due to not feeling well, or not

performing well.

Why presenteeism matters

Sickness absence costs UK employers £8.4 bn a year. Reduced productivity

at work (presenteeism) accounts for nearly twice as much working time as

absenteeism, and according to the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health, costs

businesses approximately £15.1 bn a year2.

Analysis of 44,000 health assessments3 taken in the UK between 2006 and

2009 shows a startling link between health status, productivity and absence.

Presenteeism costs

businesses approximately

£15.1 bn a year2

The study has found that the least healthy within a population - that is, people

who had five or more health risk factors, such as, being overweight, smoking,

drinking too much alcohol, not doing sufficent activity, not sleeping well etc.-

were taking between 2 and 3 times more absence than the rest of the population

examined. These individuals were self-reporting absence at a rate of 9.6 days per

year compared to between 2 and 4 days for the more healthy individuals. In terms

of productivity, the least healthy in the population were reporting being 25% less

productive than the most healthy.

Employees’ level of wellness can sustain or erode their level of engagement.

Findings in the Global Workforce Survey by Towers Perrin show that having the

senior management sincerely interested in employee wellbeing, is the top driver

of employee engagement globally4. The study also reports that only 14% of employees

in the UK, and an average of 21% globally, are fully engaged in their work5.

According to the IES/Work Foundation 2008 survey “People and the Bottom Line”,

engaged employees generate 43% more revenue than disengaged employees6.

Equally, research from the Corporate Leadership Council reported 70% of engaged

employees say they have a good understanding of how to meet customer needs,

whereas only 17% of non-engaged say the same7. The IES/Work Foundation

survey also found that highly engaged organisations have the potential to decrease

employee turnover by 87% and improve performance by 20%. What is more,

if organisations increase investment in engaging their people by just 10%, they

would increase profits by £1,500 per employee per year8.

All of the above suggest that employee wellness is a strategic issue and needs to

be addressed.

Addressing the health problems that result in presenteeism

The factors most strongly associated with presenteeism are high levels of stress,

poor diet, BMI outside the normal range, physical inactivity, and lack of emotional

fulfilment9. There has been extensive research to show that presenteeism can be

reduced by improving employee health risk factors.10 In other words health status

is correlated with productivity; the better the health status of an employee, the

more productive they are.11

Stress: It has been estimated that nearly 10% of the UK’s GNP is lost each year

due to job generated stress. An estimated 442,000 individuals in Britain were

found to believe that they were experiencing work-related stress at a level that

was making them physically ill. Globally stress levels continue to rise, with one

report showing that nearly 6 out of 10 business leaders (57%) were more stressed

than a year ago. The greatest rise in stress was found in Asia, where increasingly

competative pressures have resulted in greater demands on managers12.

Having the senior

management sincerely

interested in employee

wellbeing, is the top

driver of employee

engagement globally4

Engaged employees

generate 43%

more revenue than

disengaged employees6

Figures presented recently at the 17th World Congress on Health and Safety at

Work found that of 40.2 million working days lost by illness and injury, 13.4 million

are from stress, anxiety and depression13. On average people experiencing stress,

anxiety or depression take an estimated 30.6 days off a year, equating to an annual

loss of 0.56 days per worker14. Stress related absence can cost employers £3.7

billion every year15.

Nutrition: what you eat has a dramatic effect on your health and how you feel.

Good nutrition can boost energy levels, improve concentration and mood. What

is more, employees with healthy eating habits are at significant lower risk of

becoming overweight and developing diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol

levels. Reasearch has shown that obese workers report higher health-related lost

productive time than overweight and normal weight workers and had reduced

performance while at work16.

Activity: As little as 30 minutes of exercise each day can improve overall health

and alertness and can boost productivity and performance. Even a little bit of

activity can dramatically reduce the risk of developing major chronic diseases such

as coronary heart disease, stroke, some cancers and type two diabetes, by up to

50%. In addition, it can help people with anxiety and depression, and might even

prevent such problems from developing in the first place17.

Sleep: Energy, motivation and social interaction are closely related to sleep quality.

People who have isomnia are likely to be 6.1% less productive and show significant

poor scores in attention, decision making, memory and motivation at work.

Moreover disturbed sleep is associated with a greater risk of health problems18.

A targeted solution to presenteeism:

What can you do to maximise performance and protect and improve your

employees’ health and productivity?

Targeted investment in measurable interventions can dramatically boost your

bottom line by reducing the costs associated with presenteeism and by enhancing

the productivity and morale of your biggest asset – your employees.

In addition it promotes a culture of confidence and trust by showing your

workforce they are valued and that you are willing to invest in their health &

well-being. This commitment from the organisation can increase engagement

and commitment from your employees in return.

People who have

isomnia are likely to be

6.1% less productive18

vielife specialises in

targeted health &

well-being solutions

that deliver a

measurable return

on your investment

vielife specialises in targeted health & well-being solutions that deliver a

measurable return on your investment.

Health & Well-being Assessment: The vielife health & well-being assessment

provides a measurable approach to health. By covering a wide range of health

topics (from sleep and stress, to motivation and medical health), it provides your

employees with a comprehensive review of their health. At the same time it equips

them with highly personalised information and advice on what they need to do to

improve their current and long-term health. The assessment can be tailored to suit

the needs of your organisation and the results can help identifying the underlying

factors of presenteeism specific to your organisation.

Targeted Assessments: On completion of the health & well-being assessment

and based on the individual’s personal outcomes, participants will be prompted to

take a targeted assessment addressing the weakest area in their report. The vielife

targeted assessments address the most common lifestyle/health areas affecting

presenteeism: sleep, stress, nutrition, physical activity and back & joint health, and

they offer a more detailed assessment of the area in question and the impact

it has on the individual’s health.

Lifestyle Management Programmes: These programmes provide the means

for making the lifestyle changes needed to address the challenges identified by

the health & well-being and targeted assessments. The programmes are tailored

to the individual and help to set and achieve personal goals. The programmes are

interactive and they support the participants throughout the journey of behavioural

change towards a better health & well-being:

BuildResilience (stress management)

WakeWell (sleep management)

SmarterEating (nutrition)

KeepActive (activity & exercise)

With Me in Mind (depression management)

Lose Weight, Feel Great (weight management)

Quit Today (smoking cessation)

Employee Assistance Programmes: vielife provides a fully customised service

to match your organisation’s needs including face-to-face, telephonic and online

BACP accredited counselling.

The health & well-being

assessment can be

tailored to suit the needs

of your organisation

The programmes are

tailored to the individual

and help to set and

achieve personal goals

Want to find out more?

Find out how our health & well-being solutions can benefit you, contact us

at findoutmore@vielife.com, or call 020 7183 2289 and select option 2.

© vielife Ltd 2011www.vielife.com

vielife Return on Investment

vielife’s health promotion programmes have delivered results, including19:

An overall return on investment of 6.19:1 (ROI of 1.94:1 on absenteeism

and ROI of 4.25:1 on presenteeism)

Improvement in productivity by an average of 10.4% per person

Reduction in absence of over two days a year per person

A 5% reduction in the number of individuals with a high risk health

status in a population

5 steps to combat presenteeism

1. Engage employees by showing you are investing in their health &

well-being

2. Provide your employees with the tools to identify the health & well-being

areas they are doing well and the areas they could improve (e.g. with

health assessments)

3. Enable your employees to review and manage their health status through

ongoing interactive and personalised programmes (e.g lifestyle

management programmes addressing stress, sleep, nutrition and activity)

4. Select online interventions that are interactive and tailored as individuals

engage more with personalised programmes20

5. Measure the results and repeat the assessments at frequent intervals

(at least annually)

Sources: 1. Buck Consultants, LLC, Working Well: A Global Survey of Health Promotion and Workplace Wellness Strategies, 2010, p.4. 2. The Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health, 2007 3. vielife data from 44,000 UK employees. Assessments taken between 2006 and 2009. 4. Towers Perrin, “Closing the Engagement Gap: A Road Map for Driving Superior Business Performance”. Global Workforce Study 2007-2008. P.9 5. Towers Perrin, “Closing the Engagement Gap: A Road Map for Driving Superior Business Performance”. Global Workforce Study 2007-2008 6. IES/Work Foundation “People and the Bottom Line”, 2008 7. Corporate Leadership Council, Corporate Executive Board, 2004 “Driving Performance and Retention through Employee Engagement 8. IES/Work Foundation, “People and the Bottom Line”, 2008 9. Boles M, Pelletier B, Lynch W. J The relationship between health risk and work productivity. Occup Environ Med. 2004; 46: 737-745 10. Musich S, Hook D, Baaner S, Edington DW. The association of two productivity measures with health risks and medical conditions in an Australian population. Am J Health Promot. 2006; 20: 353-363 11. Mills PR. The development of a new corporate specific health risk measurement instrument and its use in investigating the relationship between health and well-being and employee productivity. Environ Health. 2005; 4:1-9 12. Focus on Stress. Grant Thornton International Business Owners Survey 2006. http://www.grantthorntonibos.com/files/ibos_2006_stress_supplement.pdf 13. Work-Related Stress Emerging as Major Global Occupational Health Hazard Stress Creating Workplace Hazard as Damaging as Chemical and Biological Hazards. National Safty Council. http://www.nsc.org/Pages/Work-RelatedStressEmergingasMajorGlobalOccupationalHealthHazard.aspx 14. Self-reported work-related illness and workplace injuries in 2007/08: Results from the Labour Force Survey. Health and Safety Executive. Visited 25 August 2009. 15. Dewe P, Kompier M. Foresight Mental Capital and Wellbeing Project. Wellbeing and work: Future Challenges. The Government Office for Science, London. Government Office for Science, October 2008. 16. Ricci JA, Chee E. Lost productive time associated with excess weight in the US workforce.J Occup Environ Med. 2005, 47:1227-1234 17. Benefits of Activity, NHS Live Well, http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/fitness/Pages/Whybeactive.aspx 18. Rosekind MR, Gregory KB, Mallis MM, Brandt SL, Seal B, Lerner D. The cost of poor sleep: workplace productivity loss and associated costs. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 2010; 52: 91-98. 19. Mills, P.R., Kessler, R.C., Cooper, J., & Sullivan, S. Impact of a health promotion program on employee health risks and work productivity. Am J of Health Promotion 2007: vol 22 (1): pages 45-53. 20. Lewis B, William D, Dunsiger S, Sciamanna C, Whiteley J, Napolitano M, et al. User attitudes towards physical activity websites in a randomised controlled trial. Preventive Medicine 47 (2008) 508–513.