Employers can and should encourage healthy lifestyles from their employees. It not only improves their productivity which is good for the company, it DIRECTLY saves health care costs!
An amazing study just came out of Duke University. The study looked at workers' compensation data for 11,728 Duke University employees who received health-risk appraisals over a seven-year period.
What were the results for obese employees (compared to those who are not obese) as published in the Journal of Internal Medicine?
* Obese employees filed twice the number of workers' compensation claims
* Obese employees' medical costs from those claims were seven times higher
* Obese employees stayed out of work 13 times longer after a work-related injury or illness
* Obese employees medical claims cost per 100 employees per year was 51,019 USD compared to $7,503 USD for non-obese workers
* Obese employees lost 183 days of work per 100 employees as compared to 14 days for non-obese workers (that's 13 times more!)
Yeah but those guys were OBESE. Well it doesn't look good for the overweight/mildly obese either...
* Overweight employees took four times the number of days off after being injured or getting sick at work.
* Mildly obese employees took …show more content…
Usually this is dictated by a CEO or a board of directors. If they are reading this article they are probably aware of the health challenges facing companies in this day and age. They are also probably aware that companies which have an adaptive culture that is able to handle changing circumstances tend to do really really well. 2-3 times as well profit-wise according to some studies. In addition, setting a fitness culture shows concern for employees (and allows them to be more productive) and in the long run costs less than paying for medical bills. As a minor side note, your employees will look healthy too and that in itself has its own host of
An amazing study just came out of Duke University. The study looked at workers' compensation data for 11,728 Duke University employees who received health-risk appraisals over a seven-year period.
What were the results for obese employees (compared to those who are not obese) as published in the Journal of Internal Medicine?
* Obese employees filed twice the number of workers' compensation claims
* Obese employees' medical costs from those claims were seven times higher
* Obese employees stayed out of work 13 times longer after a work-related injury or illness
* Obese employees medical claims cost per 100 employees per year was 51,019 USD compared to $7,503 USD for non-obese workers
* Obese employees lost 183 days of work per 100 employees as compared to 14 days for non-obese workers (that's 13 times more!)
Yeah but those guys were OBESE. Well it doesn't look good for the overweight/mildly obese either...
* Overweight employees took four times the number of days off after being injured or getting sick at work.
* Mildly obese employees took …show more content…
Usually this is dictated by a CEO or a board of directors. If they are reading this article they are probably aware of the health challenges facing companies in this day and age. They are also probably aware that companies which have an adaptive culture that is able to handle changing circumstances tend to do really really well. 2-3 times as well profit-wise according to some studies. In addition, setting a fitness culture shows concern for employees (and allows them to be more productive) and in the long run costs less than paying for medical bills. As a minor side note, your employees will look healthy too and that in itself has its own host of