New Year - Time For Wellness At Work

Research shows that January and February have the highest levels of sickness absence rates throughout the year, and that's not really surprising when we think about how we all feel during the dark winter months, and how often there is a cold or lurgy floating around the office.

And while it is true that according to the Office for National Statistics, the most common sickness absence reason is for minor illness (cold/ flu etc) with 34 million days lost, the second most common reason is for musculoskeletal pain (low back, neck or limb pain) with 30.8 million days lost in the UK in 2016. The ‘other’ (including stress and mental health) category which comes in third with 15.8 million days lost.

These are important statistics to be aware of – because as anyone who is part of a team knows, when someone is off sick, you may well have an increase in work load, a drop in team morale or be firefighting queries you may not be equipped or have the knowledge to deal with. As a manager or team leader you will be aware of the potential increased costs relating to locum cover and reduced productivity. With these thoughts in mind – it is worth thinking about how you can minimise the impact of sickness absence within your team and why ‘wellness’ plays such an important role for companies.

Reducing sickness absence must be a priority for businesses who are looking to improve their bottom line. And, by engaging in wellness initiatives, you can do this by firstly addressing reasons for sickness absence – musculoskeletal health and stress and mental health. Improving musculoskeletal health can be done by offering Pilates or yoga classes that your staff can attend – you could even make these during the working day, this will give your staff an incentive to go, but also the evidence shows that performance will increase ie they will still get the same amount of work done even with the hour off for a back care class! Whilst this is perhaps the most effective and cost-efficient form of addressing musculoskeletal problems in the workplace, you could also offer work place massages as a perk – shorter time than the Pilates class but impactful because it gives employees a moment to themselves during the day and encourages cohesion between them and management – which leads to better performance.

At Back to Balance, I often diagnose and treat employees who are sent to me from companies for back, neck or limb problems – a really effective way to avoid people taking time off.

When it comes to reducing stress in the workplace, encouraging mindfulness classes in the same way I have mentioned Pilates or yoga – the evidence behind this and why it is such a huge draw at the moment is because it actually gives you real benefits including; clarity of thought, better quality sleep, the ability to show more compassion to your work colleagues and to be realistic with yourself and those you work with in terms of goal setting and deadlines. With reduced stress, you are looking at reducing alcohol consumption, mental health problems and improving the immune system.

The improvement of the immune system is vitally important, as it is not only improved by dealing with stress, but also better physical health too. And, this means that you can reduce the main reason for sickness absence – minor illness; by helping your staff improve their immune system function through wellness care.