If you are serious about having motivated, energetic, and dedicated employees with a
high work ethic, then email or telephone Mike Heatlie Personal Training Edinburgh to find out
how! |
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| Tel : 0131-225-7540 |
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| From the Health & Safety Executive |
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| Introduction to ill-health
costs |
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| An estimated 2.3 million people suffer from ill-health
caused by work each year.
Some 32.9 million working days are lost annually from people taking time off
because of their ill-nesses. |
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| Work related ill-health
can happen in any business, whatever its size. Unlike work
injuries, ill-health
problems may go unnoticed. They can slowly become worse until
the ill-ness becomes permanent and possibly disabling. |
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| You cannot afford to ignore the business costs that ill-health
may cause. |
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Types of work-related
ill-health
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| There are many different types of occupational ill-health.
For example: |
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- musculoskeletal disorders (including bad backs, strains, 'RSI' etc);
- cancers;
- asthma;
- dermatitis and other skin disorders;
- deafness or hearing loss;
- wibration white finger;
- occupationally related stress;
- asbestos related disease.
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| Each can seriously affect an individual's quality of life, their ability to work and your
business. |
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| Long term
absence costs from ill-health
are much greater than in the short term. Early
action to prevent or rehabilitate ill-ness, which otherwise might result in long term
absences, will reduce costs. |
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| The costs of ill-health
to a company depend on the nature and extent of ill-ness or
disease that is prevalent. If you would like to see examples of the average length of
time people are absent from work (if they take time off) then for
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- average number of days taken off listed by ill-ness type.
- average number of days taken off listed by industry sector.
- average number of days taken off listed by occupation.
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Costs of sickness absence
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| Norwich Union Healthcare published (in 2001) a study showing the average
employee is off work sick for almost 7 days each year. |
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| The study found the : |
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- direct costs of sickness absences are best estimated as being £534 per
employee per year;
- indirect costs of sickness absences are estimated to be twice the direct costs,
ie £1070 per employee per year.
- total cost per employee per year of sickness is approx £1600 typically
around
9% of payroll costs.
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While this finding is for general sickness absence, not necessarily workrelated
ill-ness, it still clearly shows the costs of an employee being away from work.
The Confederation Of British Industry and PPP healthcare survey 'Pulling together 2001
absence and labour turnover survey' also found similar results. This found on
average 7.8 days are lost per employee per year. This is equivalent to 3.4% of the total
working time.
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| Their study found the: |
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- direct costs of sickness absences to be £434 per employee per year;
- indirect costs (although harder to estimate) were typically said to be £450 per
employee per year.
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| Both of these studies indicate that the indirect costs of absence due to ill-health
are at least 12
times the direct costs. |
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Costs of work-related
ill-health |
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| The business costs of ill-health
in the workforce come in many forms eg |
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- sickness absence;
- overtime payments;
- lost production;
- missed deadlines;
- cost of recruiting and retraining of staff employees leave.
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| There is also the additional strain put on other workers to cover the work of their
colleagues. |
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| In 1998 South West Water published a report on the costs of accidents and ill-health
in
the water industry. This followed a study in their company. The report was published
as 'The Frank Davies project Health protection and accident prevention as business
imperatives in the water industry'. |
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| South West Water costed the four most prevalent types of illhealth
in their industry.
These were : |
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- Work-related
- upper limb disorders;
- Hand arm vibration syndrome;
- Occupational stress;
- Noise induced hearing loss.
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| From these, the representative cost of a case of workrelated
illhealth
in the water
industry was found to be £8650. |
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| The average cost of Hand arm vibration syndrome was determined to be £11498 |
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| The average cost of workrelated
upper limb disorder was determined to be £5251 |
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| All of these occupationally related conditions occur in many industries. The above
values illustrate what they might be costing you.
The South West Water report was last updated in 2000. If you would like to print a
free copy of it, please click here. |
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Costs of back pain |
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| Over 1.1 million people experience musculoskeletal disorders caused by work, with
an estimated 12.3 million days lost annually because of these. |
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| Back pain is a major cause of sickness absence from work. Nationally it is estimated
that there are around half a million people with some form of back complaint caused
by work. |
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| A report by Backcare, the Forum of Private Business and the TUC suggested that
back pain is a problem for almost two thirds (63%) of small businesses. They found
one in five people working in small firms had back strain. The average small firm was
said to be losing 22 days of work a year from back strain. |
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Costs of work-related
stress |
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| Stress is the natural reaction people have to excessive pressures placed on them.
While not an ill-ness itself, if it is prolonged or intense, it can lead to mental and
physical illhealth.
This can include depression, back pain or heart disease. |
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| In Great Britain, as many as one in five people are suffering from high levels of workrelated
stress. That's around 5 million workers. An estimated halfmillion
individuals
report experiencing stress at a level they believe made them ill. This results in approx.
13.4 million working days lost per year. |
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| Work-related
stress can also lead to: |
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- an increase in sickness absence;
- a reduction in staff morale;
- poor staff performance;
- staff seeking alternative employment. Organisations then have the expense of
recruiting, inducting, and training new members of staff.
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| Increased sickness absence can have a domino effect one
person goes sick which
leads to their workload being shared among the remaining staff. They are unable to
cope, which affects their health, and this leads to greater sickness absence. |
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Source: www.hse.gov.uk |
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Telephone Mike Heatlie Personal Training Edinburgh now on 0131-225-7540 or email for more information on Corporate
Wellness and restore the health back into your employees! |
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