Occupational health is about how work and the work environment can affect an employee’s health and equally how an employee’s health can affect their ability to do the job.

Put simply, the workplace can have a significant impact on people’s health and wellbeing – for good and bad reasons.

Employers who put in place poor strategies, or lack management of workplace health, face work-related ill health in their employees and high levels of sickness absence.

DID YOU KNOW: The costs of ‘presenteeism’ (reduced performance and productivity due to ill health while at work) are more difficult to measure, while solid UK data on this is unavailable, early evidence indicates that presenteeism could cost employers two to seven times more than absenteeism!

Ultimately, as an employer, this can cause real concern, particularly because of:

• Costs involved
• Impact on service delivery
• Consequences for individual staff

Investing in improved and more proactive occupational health arrangements can deliver efficiency savings within a relatively short timescale. A proactive service, such as that delivered by Business Health Partners, can develop a healthy and supportive working environment, which will prevent work related poor health and manage common health problems, to help employees remain in work.

DID YOU KNOW: The costs of ill health for many employers – given the ageing population and the increase in chronic disease – will only grow and is enough to justify a comprehensive wellness scheme?

How can employing occupational health support help you win more business, you ask?

• By protecting and promoting the health and well-being of the working population, you can only protect and enhance both your image and reputation as a good employer
• By providing early intervention to prevent staff from being absent due to health-related reasons, you are creating improved opportunities for them to recover while still at work – meaning productivity stays up and costs are balanced
• Critical support in the processes of effective absence management will increase the number of staff who return to work earlier
• Fulfilling the statutory requirement to have access to ‘competent’ occupational health advice as part of the organisational arrangements to ensure that the health of staff and others is not adversely affected by their work

Ultimately, by offering occupational health services to your workforce, you cut costs in the long term and enhance your reputation as a good employer, which can only help your reputation as a worthy, responsible company to do business with.

Benefits of a healthy workforce are:

• Improved productivity and performance
• More effective management of absenteeism
• Fewer injuries, accidents and claims
• Improved staff morale
• Employees more receptive to and better able to cope with change
• Increased staff retention

Business Health Partners says…

At BHP we provide various healthcare services for businesses of all kinds, with decades of combined experience in the health industry, we’re passionate about sharing our knowledge with you.

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_.