What is this about?

Another major challenge facing all U.S. employers involves estimating the current organizational cost associated with employees who are at work but have an underlying health problem that impairs their productivity.  Whether it is the effects of cannabis addiction, poor sleep patterns, excessive screen time, a bout of mild depression or a pesky reflux condition, employers need to know how much lost productivity is occurring from health-related causes in their workforce.  Once they know how large the problem is then the opportunity to manage it logically arises. Recent research establishes that presenteeism losses typically amount to 1 to 3 times the cost of health plan coverage for individuals in a workforce.  This translates into between $17,000 and $51,000 per employee per year in lost value from the level of total compensation involved.

Why is this important?

This document is intended to be used to help you estimate the actual value of presenteeism losses associated with your employee’s health problems.  If worksite wellness is to be viewed seriously by senior managers, we need to credibly measure and ultimately reduce the significant economic drain that health problems create for all employers.  Without the ability to consistently track all worker health costs including presenteeism losses, management will likely under-value and under-fund employee wellness efforts.

What can you do with this document?

• First, read the document to get a sense of how presenteeism issues might be addressed.
• Next, decide your position on those issues for your organization.
• Then, determine what interventions you plan on taking and when you should implement them.
• Then, perform a baseline measurement to find out your presenteeism starting point.
• Then, implement your interventions or remedial action to reduce presenteeism losses.
• Then, perform a follow-up measurement to find out the effects of your interventions on your presenteeism losses.
• Periodically write up the evaluation of the effects on your organization and distribute it to key stakeholders.

In summary, this Q & A piece on addressing and measuring presenteeism in your organization provides a useful framework to help move your employee wellness activities to a more strategic and relevant position with your management team.