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Download: How to manage health & wellbeing (PDF 192KB)
Contributor: Stephanie Spicer
Sickness absence costs employers 3.5% of working time a year, or the equivalent of £598 per employee, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development's Absence management survey 2006.
So prevention, through health and wellbeing initiatives, is one issue that employers can not afford to ignore. And it should be to their advantage to go a step beyond legislative requirements by encouraging staff to pursue healthier lifestyles. Although the effects of conditions such as obesity, with its raised incidences of heart disease, may only materialise over the long term, a fitter body usually makes for a fitter mind. And the two combined should help boost productivity levels. Not only that, but employees may come to show greater loyalty to employers that are interested in their overall wellbeing than those that are not.
This guide is designed to help employers put in place a strategy and range of benefits to prevent sickness absence, even where their budgets are limited.
Amanda Wilkinson Editor,
Employee Benefits magazine