Benefits of health and wellbeing for work

Everyone benefits when health and wellbeing are part of our everyday lives at work.

On this page:

• What is work health and wellbeing?
• Benefits of investing in work health
• Research to support business case for work health
  • costs to business
  • risk of injury
  • productivity
• Return to work
• References

Work design, workplace culture and the physical work environment can contribute to chronic diseases, musculoskeletal disorders and psychological illness.

Embedding work health and wellbeing into organisational systems can benefit the health of workers, resulting in reduced absenteeism, workplace injuries and increase productivity.

What is work health and wellbeing?

Work health and wellbeing focuses on improving work processes to benefit the health of workers and prevent chronic disease risks in the workplace. The work people do can positively or negatively affect the likelihood of a person developing an injury or illness. When it comes to work health and wellbeing, risk factors include physical inactivity including sedentary work, unhealthy eating, harmful alcohol consumption, smoking, obesity and poor mental health.

When we look at work health and wellbeing in the workplace there are many factors we must consider.

• Work organisation – the way work is done. This includes systems, policies, procedures, processes, physical and mental demands, work characteristics and the organisational context.
• Physical environment – the plant, equipment, materials, vehicles, buildings and structures where the work is performed.
• Workers – the physical, emotional and mental capacities and behaviours demonstrated.

Embedding work health and wellbeing into existing systems, policies and procedures can assist in making work health and wellbeing sustainable and relevant to the entire organisation. The three core elements in creating a healthy workplace are:

1. Plan – embed work health and wellbeing into your business systems and identify and assess risks.
2. Implement – manage risks by implementing appropriate interventions and monitor them to make sure they are effective.
3. Evaluate the impact of embedding work health and wellbeing into your business systems and make sustainable improvements.

Workplace factors provide a physical, cultural and organisational environment that supports healthy lifestyle choices for workers, supply chain and networks. Workplace interventions should:

• build on a solid foundation of an effective safety management system
• be complementary to workplace health and safety systems and duties
• include consideration of work design and the work environment, and ensure these are contributing to positive health outcomes for workers
• adhere to principles of good work design.

Worker participation – it is important to engage workers when you develop and implement work health and wellbeing. This can assist you in making better decisions about the approach you take.

Benefits of investing in work health

Embedding work health and wellbeing into organisational systems and culture will benefit the health of workers and prevent chronic disease risk in the workplace. Many business goals will take time to achieve. Therefore, it is important to have a mixture of data sources to show short, medium and long-term outcomes.

*Table adapted from WorkCover Tasmania's simple guide to Workplace Health and Wellbeing.

^1. Chapman LS. Meta-evaluation of worksite health promotion economic return studies: 2012 update. The Art of Health Promotion 2012; 26(4).

Research to support business case for work health

Research shows work health and wellbeing is closely linked to productivity, risk of injury, business costs and return to work. Below are some of the results of these studies. This data can be used as part of a business case (DOCX, 0.56 MB) to gain management support and approval for work health, safety and wellbeing.  data can also assist in developing a business case and setting an organisational benchmark against others in your industry.

Costs to business

• The direct and indirect financial cost in Australia of obesity alone (not including those who are considered overweight) was estimated at $37.7 billion in 2008-2009, with $6.4 billion being attributed to loss in workplace productivity. ²
• Workers who are obese have higher rates of workplace injuries and accidents, claim durations and medical costs associated with obesity.^3-7 This may place pressure on workers' compensation schemes in the future.
• In 2014, the annual cost of absenteeism to the Australian economy was $44 billion and the estimated cost of presenteeism was $35 billion.⁸
• The four main causes of presenteeism are unhealthy lifestyles, workers with illnesses going to work, allergies and asthma, poor work-life balance and high levels of work related stress.¹⁶
• In 2013-14, the cost of work related injuries and diseases in Queensland was estimated to be $5.8 billion, of which employers bore 10 per cent of total cost of work related injuries¹⁸.
• Half of the loss in workplace productivity is due to chronic conditions such as headaches, neck/back pain and hay fever, and half is related to chronic diseases such as arthritis, cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes.⁹
• Mental health conditions cost Australian workplaces $10.9 billion each year.¹⁰ This consists of $4.7 billion in absenteeism, $6.1 billion in presenteeism and $146 million in workers compensation claims.¹⁰

Risk of injury

• Injury risk is 13 per cent higher for obese or overweight workers compared to workers with a healthy weight.²²
• Obesity increases the risk of injury, including an increased probability of slips, trips and falls and musculoskeletal injury.¹⁹
• Recovery from injury takes longer for obese people, with the average hospital stay significantly longer.¹⁹
• Obesity is associated with sleep apnoea, which consequently leads to fatigue. Fatigue is an injury risk for those operating machinery and drivers.¹⁹
• Workers who smoked have a 38 per cent higher risk of work-related injury than those who have never smoked.²⁰
• Type 2 diabetes and depression have been found to increase the risk of workplace injury.¹¹
• High job demands increase the risk of safety shortcuts and fatigue which can lead to accidents or injury.¹¹ Those with co-morbidities are at an increasingly higher risk.¹¹
• Long working hours and shift work can lead to a variety of health effects (e.g. reduction in quality/quantity of sleep, fatigue, anxiety, depression, increased risk of heart disease and gastrointestinal disorders) and increased safety risks (e.g. reduced alertness affecting safe operation of plant and machinery).¹²
• Work-related stress is associated with higher rates of workplace accidents and injury.¹³
• High staff turnover, low management support and low job satisfaction are associated with increased rates of workplace injury.¹⁴

Productivity

• The healthiest Australian employees are almost three times more productive than their unhealthy colleagues.¹⁶
• Workers with medium to high health risks are three times more likely to file workers compensation claims.¹⁷
• Workers with two or more chronic diseases have two and half times longer sickness absences than healthy workers.²³
• Workers who are overweight/obese miss more than twice as many workdays for work-related injuries compared to workers of a healthy weight.⁷
• Excess weight and physical inactivity are associated with employees' work performance. Obese workers are more likely to take sick leave, have longer injury severity and recovery time off work and be less productive.^2-7
• In 2001, it was estimated that more than four million days per year were lost by Australian workplaces due to obesity.⁵
• Two and a half million work days are missed annually because of personal alcohol use.⁷
• On average, 6.5 working days of productivity are lost annually per employee as a result of presenteeism.¹⁶
• Employees who consider their workplace mentally unhealthy take four times as many sick days than those who consider their workplace mentally healthy. Creating a mentally healthy workplace generates an average return of $2.30 in improved productivity for every $1 invested.¹⁰
• Productivity losses of those with chronic diseases account for 537 thousand full-time employment years and their carers 47 thousand part-time employment years. If chronic disease was eliminated Australian economic productivity could increase by 10 per cent.²¹

Return to work

• Work absence tends to perpetuate; for example, the longer someone is off work, the less likely they are to return to work. If the person is off work for:²⁴
  • 20 days the chance of ever getting back to work is 70 per cent
  • 45 days the chance of ever getting back to work is 50 per cent
  • 70 days the chance of ever getting back to work is 35 per cent.
• Long-term work absence, work disability and unemployment are harmful to physical and mental health and wellbeing. The psychological problems of being away from work may have consequences associated with physical health due to uptake of negative lifestyle choices such as smoking, harmful alcohol consumption and drug use.²⁴