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Let’s get healthy! How health and wellbeing could save us £29bn a year

If someone mentioned that the economy could save up to £29bn a year without having to cut spending, what would you say?

Tell me more? Ok, we will! And you might just be surprised how…

£29bn is the estimated cost of sickness absence for UK organisations according to PwC figures and absence levels in Britain top the global scale. With an average 9.1 days taken per employee per year, it’s no wonder the figures start to add up – in fact UK workers take double the amount of sickness absence as US staff (4.9 days) and quadruple that of workers in the Asia Pacific region (2.2 days).

As the environment gets increasingly global and competitive and productivity in every sector becomes crucial to survival, health and wellbeing is becoming a top priority for forward-thinking organisations.

Closely linked to employee engagement, a new report from the CIPD has also found that nearly a quarter of employees admit taking non-genuine sickie days too. When you add it altogether, a focus on people and health and wellbeing doesn’t seem such a ‘nice to do’ does it?

For us, it all boils down to the simple idea that good people make great business – and looking after your people, their health and their engagement is fundamentally looking after your business and its performance.

So what can your organisation do to promote a healthy and productive workplace?

With stress topping the list as one of the main reasons for sickness absence in the UK and stress levels doubling in the last 4 years, getting involved in stress awareness day this year might be a good place to start.

Taking place on 6th November 2013, National Stress Awareness Day raises awareness about stress, how to prevent it and how to manage it should it occur. The emphasis is on promoting psychological wellbeing of people at work and this year’s theme is ‘Going the Extra Mile’ – good practice in organisations that take workplace wellbeing seriously.

And with employees in Yorkshire and Humber and the North West being some of the most stressed employees in the country, it is even more crucial for organisations in the North of England to start getting involved with health and wellbeing.

At IiP North of England, we are passionate about our region and want to help organisations of all sizes and sectors to realise their people potential and succeed.

We want to help you explore health and wellbeing, so why not click here for more information about the Health & Wellbeing Good Practice Award or come along to one of our free awareness sessions. You can also contact us to talk about your interest in workplace wellbeing or take part in our health and wellbeing development programme.

You can also find out more about workplace wellbeing and pick up a wealth of resources and tips from Health and Wellbeing Interactive, a free online resource from Investors in People.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by idg .