THE BUSINESS CASE FOR WELLBEING

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Reduced wellbeing in organisations has serious consequences for both the individuals within the organisation and the organisation itself.  When individuals experience reduced wellbeing, they experience a variety of mental and physical symptoms e.g.:

  • Feeling fatigued and overwhelmed
  • Experiencing aches and pains
  • Feeling irritated
  • Low in mood
  • Having less patience
  • Lower confidence levels.
  • Impaired memory
  • Experiencing difficulties in making decisions.

The research also shows that prolonged exposure to stress can result in employees experiencing anxiety and/or depression. In addition, it leaves employees vulnerable to a range of serious physical illnesses and can reduce their lifespan by up to 10 years:

  • Cardiovascular disease
    Heart attack, stroke, blood pressure, etc…
  • Diabetes, obesity,
  • Reduced Immune system leading to more infections

 

These symptoms then have an impact on the organisation e.g. research carried out by the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health (2005) found that mental ill health costs UK employers around £8.4 billion pounds per year in sickness absence and almost double in Presenteeism (i.e. where employees remain in work when they are ill). Staff turnover i.e. recruiting and training new staff to replace employees who go off with mental health problems and don’t come back costs an additional £2.4 billion.

The bad news then is that poor mental health costs organisations around £1000 per employee per year, in terms of, sickness absence and reduced productivity, which also has an impact on employee engagement. The good news is that there is increasing evidence demonstrating the importance of investing in wellbeing. We now realise that wellbeing is not a nice to have, it is not something pink and fluffy but another lever that organisations can use to improve health, productivity and business performance. So, it is not all doom and gloom, there are things that organisations can do to improve mental health in the work place. The Sainsbury Centre suggests that organisations can save up to 30% of the costs that we have just looked at.

Spending Money on Wellbeing Is a Good Investment

The research evidence in this area is promising, indicating that spending money on improving mental health in the workplace, produces a good return on investment. A study by Knapp et al (2011) started to identify some of the return on investment that companies who invest in wellbeing can expect to gain.  The savings mentioned here are seen in terms of lower sickness absence rates and lower presenteeism/higher productivity.

 

 

INTERVENTION SHORT-TERM LONGER- TERM
Early Diagnosis of Depression in the Workplace £1.96 for every £1 spent £3.07 for every pound spent
Workplace Health Promotion £9.69 for every £1 spent Data still being collated

 

There are other examples from the wellbeing literature of organisations who have gained a good return on their investment in employee’s mental wellbeing. EDF invested in a wellbeing programme with a focus on mental health and found that:

  • Improved productivity saved the business an estimated
  • £228,000 per year;
  • Staff morale improved (employees “happy in my job”
  • increased from 36% to 68%);
  • Retirements due to psychological ill-health were reduced to
  • just one in 2007;

 

Parcelforce Worldwide implemented a range of wellbeing initiatives that included health and wellbeing training for managers alongside a stress counselling service for employees. This enabled them to make some substantial cost savings.

  • Sickness absence was reduced by 1/3, saving £55 million;
  • Accidents were reduced by 45%, saving £440,000;
  • Compensation claims were reduced by 2/3, saving £1 million;
  • Productivity increased by 12.5%;
  • Customer service improved by 50% and employee
  • satisfaction increased by 1/3;
  • Overall, a direct investment of £2.25 million yielded £6
  • million in direct cost savings.

The research in this area is still emerging but investing in wellbeing is money well spent. If you would like to know more about this topic or would like some help with constructing your business case for investing in wellbeing, contact Sharon on: sharon@cognoscenti.uk.com or ring her on 0161 344 5492/07771 870547.

If you know anyone who would be interested in reading this article, then please feel free to share it with them.

 

 

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