Driving productivity with healthy male employees
Introducing the Decades of Life program by Foundation 49
As an employer, are you aware of the effect of poor health on your employees and its impact on workplace productivity?
Foundation 49 can come into your workplace and offer a cost-effective, efficient and comprehensive health check for each male employee.
Did you know?
Employers who introduce health promotion to their workplaces can:
- Reduce employee health risks by up to 56 per cent at a rate of 10 per cent each year
- Significantly reduce the cost of absenteeism. Absenteeism is estimated to cost Australian employers 2% of GDP based on an absence rate of 2.5%.
- Address the obesity epidemic. Some 3.2 million Australians are clinically obese and are costing $3.8 billion in lost productivity and direct health costs. A significant proportion are men.
Why the fuss?
Some men’s health stats:
More than five men die prematurely each hour in Australia from potentially preventable conditions
Every year more than 470,000 years of life are lost to the male population due to premature death – from heart disease, cancer, accidents, suicide, alcoholism, obesity and smoking
The suicide rate is four times higher for men than women
Men live, on average, six years less than women
Nearly two thirds of men are overweight – increasing their chances of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and cancer
Why assess the health of men working for you?
No employer can afford to ignore the health of Australia’s 5.4 million working men – a quarter of the country’s population.
Imagine the impact on Australian communities – on workplaces, wives, children and friends – if men could live longer and healthier lives.
A recent Wesley Corporate Health Study on health in the Australian workplace has found:
the average worker has almost three health ‘risks’ meaning they are more likely to suffer heart disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer and depression. They are up to 7 per cent less productive because of these risks. Interestingly, the average US worker has just 2.1 risks.
The study estimated the effect on the Australian economy, from lost productivity due to ill health, was $34.8 billion per annum or 4.2 per cent of GDP.
But wait. There’s good news!
These health risks can be reduced by workplace health checks and education strategies. Employers, who introduce health promotion to their workplaces, can reduce their employees’ health risk factors by up to 56 per cent, according to the Wesley study.
So how could you achieve this?
By offering:
- annual health and wellness checks of all employees to identify health risks
- educational materials and referrals to improve employees health.
Read about The Decades of Life program here.
