Although every business is unique and the issues facing every organisation are different, there are several key issues that are prevalent in the UK today. Although the four key areas have a significant impact on business, these are also areas in which employers can make efforts and see improvements. The first step to improving company policy and programmes is finding out to what extent these issues are affecting employees and the business as a whole.
The UK is the second most obese nation in the developed world and costs the UK £1.4 bilion in sickness absence.*
As Western diets, ready-to-eat meals at desks and the prevalence of snack food and fast food culture have swept into the workplace, obesity has become a greater and greater issue for businesses, increasing the incidence of heart problems, diabetes and potential sickness absence.
Employers increasingly need to play a role in combating obesity and encouraging health and wellbeing to staff.
Work-related stress accounts for over one third of all new incidents of ill health. In fact according to the Health & Safety Executive:
This equates to a cost of £3.8 billion**. And although this is a tremendous expense to UK business, it must also be remembered that many workers will still not admit to being stressed for fear of being judged inadequate at their job.
Although it may not seem like a widespread issue, back pain is in fact one the greatest reasons for absence in UK today. It is also an issue that has a high degree of recurrence if not identified or treated correctly.
This equates to a cost for employers of over £400 million*** in lost working time, sick pay and admin.
Although substance abuse is often assumed to cover just drug abuse, it must be borne in mind that substance abuse also includes alcohol abuse and prescription drugs.
* www.hse.gov.uk/horizons/obesityreport.pdf
** www.hse.gov.uk/stress/why.htm
*** www.hse.gov.uk
All statistics reproduced under the terms of the OPSI Click-use licence
