Productivity at work depends on the wellbeing of your staff

If productivity is going down the plughole in your business, then there may be a simple solution. Look after your employees better and they will look after you. Ensuring that staff are both mentally and physically healthy can pay huge dividends.

The high cost of absenteeism is well-known. Employers’ body Ibec estimates it costs Irish businesses as much as €1.5 billion a year, equivalent to €818 for each employee.

But it is not just absent employees that are a drain on company resources, however. The working sick can be just as much of an issue. “Presenteeism” is the term used to describe the act of attending work while under the weather. Although it may be tempting to applaud those who drag themselves into the office despite being ill, it is likely their presence is actually bad for business.

A recent study undertaken by insurer Aviva Health found that presenteeism cuts productivity by as much as a third, making it a serious challenge for management.

Worse again, it is a growing phenomenon. With the recession having forced many businesses to make redundancies and cut costs, employees have been expected to do more, with some working so hard that it is making them sick. According to the Aviva Health poll of 350 managers and 463 employees, 70 per cent of bosses said they need employees to work harder than ever before. This figure rose to 85 per cent for SME owners and managers.

Two-thirds of employees surveyed said they work over and above the hours for which they are paid at least once a week. Almost half reported they regularly work late twice a week or more. More than half of all staff said they regularly work through their lunch.

Prof Ciaran O’Boyle, a professor of psychology and director of the Institute of Leadership at the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, who advised on the research, said that stress has always been an issue in the workplace, but that it is increasing at present. He attributes this in part to the changed economic environment but also to the ways management relay information – both positive and negative – to staff.

“Forces like globalisation, increasing customer expectations, and the ubiquity of technology with the resulting ‘always on’ and ‘always urgent’ ethos have increased the pressures on employees. The result is increased physical and psychological strain resulting in a variety of ailments.

“The impact for firms is increased absenteeism, increased presenteeism, decreased productivity, decreased quality, increased errors and possibly the risk of litigation,” he said.

Apart from the challenge of tougher trading conditions, the lines between work and time off have become blurred by technology, further adding to stress levels.

“Time strain has become a major issue. People are ‘always on’ even when on holiday or sick. Technology has positive dimensions, but it is a two-edged sword as it allows work to invade non-working life. Furthermore, everything is ‘urgent’, but not necessarily important,” Prof O’Boyle added.

Concern over stress

The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) has expressed concern about rising levels of stress in the workplace. Over the years, it has developed tools to assess stress in organisations.

Patricia Murray

, an organisational psychologist with the HSA, believes that employees are well-served by legislation but that more can be done to support them.

“There is no shortage of pieces of legislation,” she said. “There is, however, a lack of joined-up practices and reasonably workable solution-focused approaches to work-related stress.”

Ibec has also been keen to stress the importance of promoting wellbeing in the workplace and is keen to encourage companies to take a proactive approach.

“Work-related stress often occurs where job roles are not clear and/or the employee feels that they have a limited ability to control their own work. To avoid work-related stress, the employer should, where possible, take care to ensure that organisational structures, policies and procedures are clear, unambiguous and unlikely to create additional difficulties or confusion for employees,” said Kara McGann, policy executive at Ibec.

“Clarity around job roles, provision of appropriate training and management of demands placed on individual employees will all help to mitigate the potential for stress,” she added.

The Aviva Workplace Health Index shows almost three-quarters of employees surveyed claim a pressurised work environment has become the norm. While most employers believe they have a duty of care to help staff stay well and are aware workplace health initiatives have many benefits in attracting and retaining talent and increasing loyalty, many organisations lack the required resources to run satisfactory health and wellness projects. However, the situation is improving.

“Ibec, in a survey of human resource management practices, found that more than one third of respondents had engaged in employee health screening in the 12 months preceding the survey, almost one in five had a stress management campaign and just over one in 10 had held a mental wellbeing campaign in the previous year,” said Ms McGann.

“Such campaigns varied in focus, but tended to take the form of awareness training around the signs and symptoms of stress; anxiety and depression; resilience and looking after your own mental health and information on nutrition, exercise and a range of stress-relieving activities, such as meditation or yoga.”

Ms McGann said employers have been proactively focusing on mental health in particular over the past year, leading Ibec to hold a number of seminars and workshops and the publication of a guide produced in conjunction with the advocacy group See Change.

“Employer queries have tended to be looking for advice with regards to how they can support their employees – a major concern expressed has been how to ensure they do not add to the difficulty the individual is experiencing at that time. Others have been proactively focused on putting supports in place or providing their employees with the tools they need to look after their own mental health and wellbeing,” she said.

While supporting employees is key, Ms McGann says organisations also have to keep in mind that no two people have the same response to stress: “The impact on employees can be very specific to the individual, given that two people can experience the same situation but one may experience little or no stress while the other may experience extreme stress based on their personal coping skills, supports and resilience.”