“Employees trust managers who are concerned about their well-being”
source: Great Place to Work Institute
Over a trillion dollars in lost productivity
Over a trillion dollars. That’s how much chronic illness costs businesses in the United States alone in lost productivity according to an independent think tank. Taking into account population differences, we would be talking about a hundred billion dollars in Canada. Combine the two and we have some pretty serious cash. What’s worse, the numbers are expected to quadruple by 2030.
A trillion dollars alone makes the mind boggle. That’s a million million. What could you do if you had a trillion dollars?
Buy every share of every stock on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
or
Fund the military of every NATO country combined for year.
or
Pay all the rent cheques for everyone in the United States for three years.
You would think with so much money at stake, more people would be talking about this issue.
Why is this such a problem?
Some of this productivity loss is due to presenteeism – where people show up for work but aren’t productive during their time on the job. Things like obsesity and other “lifestyle” illnesses get the brunt of the blame in the media, but there are other important forces at play in this trillion dollar game.
1. Many chronic illnesses are invisible.
2. Many people do not tell their employers or managers because of the worry of being stigmatized or losing their jobs
3. Many of these same people do not monitor or attend to their illness (ie. take their proper medications etc) while at work because they don’t want people to know they are sick.
4. Many organizations are still slow to offer flexible work arrangements that will allow employees to be more productive during the time they are at work.
Creating an open and Results Oriented Work Environment can go a long way to reducing these numbers. Businesses that are smart enough to realize this will have a competitive advantage as chronic illness affects more and more of the labor force.
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