A healthy workforce is an extremely valuable asset for a business while an unhealthy workforce can be a huge drain on a company’s performance.
In 2019/20 there was an estimated £18.8 billion cost to businesses due to injuries and ill-health as a result of current working conditions.
With 1.8 million workers suffering from work-related ill health in 2021/22 of which 40% are new cases, it is evident that not enough is being done to protect employee health while at work.
Working in the Engineering sector you will be aware that you need to provide Health Surveillance to your employees where deemed appropriate by your Risk Assessments, but it’s not just physical injuries that contribute to an unhealthy workforce.
What is the result of an unhealthy workforce?
An unhealthy workforce, whether as a result of a physical injury or illness, or due to a mental illness, can manifest several different problems such as:
- Low or reduced productivity causing tasks to take longer to complete or completed to a lower quality.
- High staff turnover causing a loss of productive time as new members of staff are trained.
- An increase of stress on employees as they need to cover for the lack of attendance of others. This will also reduce overall productivity.
- A negative attitude which could result in damage to the reputation of your company.
Get ahead by being different!
As a business that works in Engineering, it’s highly likely you are providing some level of Health Surveillance to your employees but have you ever considered going a step further and offering workplace health and wellbeing services alongside this?
Didn’t think so.
The vast majority of businesses see their obligation to providing Health Surveillance as a necessary evil and leave it at that. And legally that’s true, but there are so many potential benefits to also offering your employees health and wellbeing support.
So, what are these benefits?
A workforce that is healthy in body and mind can give you the following benefits:
- Higher productivity reducing the time needed for tasks to be completed meaning more work can be completed in the same time and to a higher quality.
- Reduced staff turnover as a result of a happier and more content workforce meaning employees know their duties and perform them competently and reducing the time required to train new staff.
- Increased attendance reducing the stress placed on other employees needing to cover for them.
- Positive attitude resulting in customers having a better experience and increasing your company’s reputation.
- Employees being willing to go the extra mile as a result of feeling valued.
The most common reason for companies not providing occupational health and wellbeing services to their employees is them believing there is a lack of employee demand. It may be that you only seek advice about Occupational Health and Wellbeing services when you feel out of your depth.
By being proactive instead of reactive in offering Health and Wellbeing support you can prevent a lot of the issues previously mentioned above. If you provide your employees with access to Health and Wellbeing support, where they can seek professional guidance and support with any concerns they may have, your employees will feel valued. It may turn out that by providing these services where your competitors may not, you end up with a competitive advantage over them. One that isn’t obvious to the naked eye but that results in a better reputation and loyal customers.
How can Aardvark help?
Aardvark Occupational Health are able to support your employees with Health and Wellbeing support tailored to the needs of your business.
Our fleet of Mobile Medical Centres is available to provide any service you need, where and when you need them, removing the requirement for you to ensure you have a suitable space for us to perform assessments. We’ll arrive with everything we could possibly need.
By ensuring that your employees’ health and mental wellbeing is positive, and that the environment in which they work is not adversely affecting their health, you can take a big step towards reducing absence due to illness.
Illness and sickness can never be reduced to zero, but by being proactive instead of reactive you can help to minimise absence and turbocharge productivity.
At Aardvark Occupational Health, we tailor our services to complement your business, providing our services when and how you need them.
