The Next Integrated Health and Productivity Priority: Workplace Well-Being

By Kimberly George, RN

Global Head, Integration and Product Development
Sedgwick

During the pandemic, a key issue for integrated absence management professionals has been employee mental health and productivity.

You have already worked evenings and weekends to iron out pandemic-related employee issues, and you take it seriously because you have seen in the past how much health issues can affect a workforce. Integrated health and productivity programs have often focused on musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) due to their major impact on the workforce. MSD health costs were drastically rising year over year; combine that with lost productivity costs, and there was a business emergency. I suggest we are currently in a similar situation with workforce mental health and well-being.

Employers spend more on MSDs than any other condition or chronic disease, including diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory illness.¹ The indirect costs to employers may be five times direct costs, or $100 billion per year, and include absenteeism and presenteeism. In many of the most costly MSD cases, mental health has often been a comorbid condition and the key factor increasing costs. Today with the pandemic driving mental health risks such as isolation and stress, mental health has emerged as our next business emergency, a new stand-alone crisis.

The pandemic shifted business plans and priorities at work in 2020. Leaders were quick to pivot their teams to address the health and safety of their workforce, customers, and business continuity due to COVID-19. And while evolving integrated health and productivity programs may have taken a back seat to more urgent needs, our learnings from this time of work from home, social distancing, economic downturn, and civil unrest certainly offer even more clarity around the importance of mental health and well-being in the workplace. As employers are preparing their 2021 priorities, I suggest workforce well-being be a top priority for integrated health and productivity.

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