The health of workers is becoming increasingly worrying in France. In response to growing work stoppages, an occupational health law was introduced in August 2021, which was implemented in April 2022. The purpose of this law is to strengthen health prevention in the workplace and to guard against risks. professionals. It would nevertheless be a shame to stop at the application of the law to take care of the health of its employees, when there are so many positive impacts on the company.
The reality of the financial impact of absenteeism
Let's start with some figures from recent studies on the cost of absenteeism and employee illness. These objective data reflect the reality that a company must take into account in order to be sustainable. Far is the idea of reducing the health of employees to money.
€3,500: this is the average annual cost of absenteeism per employee in France, ie €25 billion.
Work-related accidents and illnesses cost the European Union more than 3.3 % of GDP per year. In France, 1.1 million claims were declared for 19.6 million private sector employees and nearly three-quarters resulted in a work stoppage.
Other figures are available from serious studies which attempt to put a cost on absenteeism, due to illness or not. Moreover, each company could calculate its own cost of absenteeism. To do this, it would be necessary to differentiate the direct and indirect costs of absenteeism due to sick leave, accidents at work and so-called occupational diseases. The direct cost takes into account the gross salary and social contributions, the employer's supplement for absences, maintenance of the salary during the waiting period and the loss of productivity due to the absence of employees. Indirect costs are more complicated to calculate and include:
- the additional work of the teams before the absent employee is replaced
- profitability which reduces the time for the replacement to be trained
- replacement training cost
- or the cost linked to the reorganization of the teams
- the risk of exhaustion of the teams present
- the deterioration of the social climate
- damage to the image of the company
Regarding the cost of reduced productivity related to the health of employees, we have devoted a section to this in this article. Before accessing it, we wanted to broaden the impact of employee health on an aspect other than financial.
The health of employees to maintain a good atmosphere
The health of employees goes well beyond absences caused by illness. Because you can very well have a long-term condition and continue to work. Except that the underlying diseases and sometimes their treatments alter the mood and the motivation to work. A chronic illness can cause depression, such as diabetes For example. Without forgetting the psychosocial risks that arise at work and disturb the minds of those who suffer from them:
- THE burnout, the scourge of our time,
- the stress,
- the bore-out,
- the quiet quitting
- etc
This is why we dare to say that by keeping your employees in good health, you ensure a climate conducive to work in your company. Not only does a sick person risk losing all motivation to produce, but a sick person within a team can just as badly affect the atmosphere. Let's see this now with studies, in the next point.
Health, QVCT and productivity are interconnected
Occupational health has been the subject of observation for many years. Empirically, any company can realize that a healthy employee is less absent and can therefore produce more. Let's go further than these simple observations with some interesting and non-exhaustive studies, which combine health, commitment, QVT and productivity.
Health and QVCT
The oldest that interests us is that of Harvard with the support of MIT, in 2010. Here are the figures they derive from their study:
A happy employee is 31% more productive and 55% more creative than a stressed employee
He is also 2 times less sick, 6 times less absent and 9 times more loyal.
Taking care of health is all year round!
We see that by working on the QVCT (quality of life and working conditions) with its employees, we obtain a direct effect on their health and their commitment.
QVCT and employee engagement
In 2020, the organization IBET© estimated the following figure:
An employee disengaged from his work costs his company €14,310 per year.
Going back to the conclusion of the previous study, we can therefore add that an employee who is not happy at work costs the company dearly, due to the illnesses he may develop, the resulting absenteeism as well as the decline in performance.
Employee engagement and health
More recently, Ayming conducted a comprehensive study on the links between employee health, commitment and absenteeism. This study joins that of Harvard by giving meaning:
The healthier an employee is, the more committed he is. The more an employee is engaged, the less he is absent.
Other studies are launched each year, as if to convince business leaders that they really need to take care of their employees. As if it did not flow from source at first sight. So you, where are you in your thinking? Is the health of your employees important to you?
