Occupational health is generally more difficult to manage than safety, which is why it shouldn’t be seen as just interrupting your business – but a necessity to comply with regulations, improve productivity and your company profits.

Through these blogs we’ve highlighted various health and safety regulations, mental health issues and how to monitor, care for, spot and control different work-related conditions.

Additionally, we’ve suggested how the occupational health services that Business Health Partners provide could dramatically help your company in all of the situations we’ve described.

However, we’re aware that employing occupational health services aren’t naturally at the top of your to do list on a Monday morning (it’s a should do, not a must do).

It is for this reason that we’re pointing out just why you should bump this up your to do list.

Employee Welfare Should Always Be a Priority

The main point is that your employees should become a #1 priority – yes, that means more important than those bottom line figures and profit margins.

Why? They’re the ones who are helping create such figures, so if you lose your workforce, those figures are nonsense.

Our Health Surveillance programme is specifically designed to review and spot developing cases that may detect work-related conditions that are either physical or mental.

Once detected, our programme can then assist in evaluating how urgently the employee requires attention and just what that attention should be – we will continue to monitor an ongoing situation.

We can perform these planned health assessments either off or onsite to minimise business interruption, as well as improving employee morale.

As a programme, our Health Surveillance assessments can:

• Detect adverse health effects at an early stage
• Prevent disabling illness/disease
• Assist in the evaluation of control measures
• Protect the health of your employees

In Numbers: The Effect of Occupational Health Programmes

If you’re still sceptical about the positive effect that suitable occupational health management can have on a company – and how the minimal interruption to business becomes irrelevant – keep reading.

Our statistics are all sourced from reliable sources and we do our best to bring you the most up-to-date figures. All of the above work-related conditions can be avoided and / or supported by implementing sufficient occupational health support:

• Almost 60% of occupational ill health involves musculoskeletal injury such as back injury from repetitive lifting or work-related upper limb disorders (WRULDs) from repetitive tasks. [Source: HSE]
• Work-related stress, which is often cited as a cause of mental ill health, is another major issue causing almost 30% of ill health. [Source: HSE]
• Occupational asthma and rhinitis, related mainly to exposure to flour and bakery dusts, causes around 8% of ill health followed by occupational dermatitis (4%) and noise-induced hearing loss (1%). [Source: HSE]
• Around 13,000 deaths each year from occupational lung disease and cancer are estimated to have been caused by past exposure, primarily to chemicals and dusts, at work. [Source: HSE]
• An estimated 1.1 million people who worked in 2011/12 were suffering from a work-related illness, of which 452,000 were new cases which started in the year (LFS). [Source: HSE]
• Around 80% of the new work-related conditions in 2011/12 were musculoskeletal disorders or stress, depression or anxiety (LFS). [Source: HSE]
• Estimates up to 2011/12 show an increase, between 1974 and 2013, in the total number of cases of stress, depression and anxiety (although it is likely that awareness and attitudes to work-related stress changed in the 1990s which will have affected reporting (LFS 1990-2011/12)). [Source: HSE]
• Between 1974 and 2013, fatal injuries to employees have fallen by 85% (RIDDOR). [Source: HSE]

Business Health Partners says…

Our occupational health services help oversee entire workforces and look for any risks to both workforce and employer. First and foremost, we ensure that employers understand our capabilities and limitations as a occupational health provider.

Our Directors have decades of combined experience, dealing with companies with varying requirements and from across different industries, which is why we believe “our expertise comes from experience”.

If you’d like to know more about the occupational health services, training and consultancy that we provide, why not call 07720 956789 or if you like what you hear, follow us at @BusinessHealth_.