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The lights are on, but nobody's home: Preventing presenteeism

Employees who think they are doing their employers a favor by showing up for work when they really aren't up to the job need to think twice. That's because they end up costing their company money in lost productivity -- a phenomenon known as presenteeism.

While employers are still concerned about absenteeism, presenteeism is quickly gaining momentum and becoming one of the biggest drains on companies today. But the underlying roots of both problems are the same: stress, poorly managed health care, work burnout and work-life imbalance.

However, companies that take a comprehensive and proactive approach to health care, early intervention and disease management are apt to keep their employees healthy and keep rising health care costs at bay, as well as reduce indirect costs associated with absenteeism and presenteeism.

What is presenteeism?
The Employers of Health Coalition defines presenteeism as the measure of lost productivity cost due to employees actually showing up for work, but not being fully engaged and productive mainly because of personal health and life issue distractions.

As companies are under more pressure to improve productivity to compete in today's global marketplace, employees, too, feel the pressure to work -- or at least appear to work. By the same token, they may rarely use vacation or sick time in fear of appearing less committed to their jobs.

The result: employees come to work when they aren't feeling well or aren't able to give 100 percent, leading to lost productivity just when companies need to maximize it most. Studies show that this is a growing problem -- figuratively and financially. For example:

• Employees who work at diminished capacity cost their employers an estimated $250 billion each year. (1)
• Presenteeism accounts for 61 percent of an employee's total lost productivity and medical costs. (2)
• Presenteeism costs employers $2,000 per employee each year. (2)
• Researchers at the Cornell Institute for Health and Productivity Studies (IHPS) and the health-information firm Medstat estimate that companies' on-the-job productivity losses from presenteeism are possibly as high as 60 percent of the total cost of worker illness -- exceeding the costs of absenteeism and medical and disability benefits.

Although many costs related to presenteeism are indirect and difficult to attribute, everyone knows that when someone doesn't feel well, they simply aren't as productive and the quality of their work suffers. They may also spread illnesses to coworkers, who in turn either call in sick or come to work sick, thereby affecting even more employees.

Just as it's difficult to attribute hard dollars lost to presenteeism, it may also be hard to identify the problem. While some companies can measure output per employee, for example, others need to rely on more subjective factors. If employees appear unfocused during meetings, continually miss deadlines, spend a lot of time on the phone working out personal problems or generally seem to be in poor health for an unusually long period of time, presenteeism may be to blame.

What causes presenteeism?
"Stress is the number one cause of presenteeism," said Rob Kramer, senior director of business development, Ceridian Employee Effectiveness Services. "Stress is an outcome of many other problems -- such as poor health and pressures at work or home -- and a cause of other issues -- such as recurring headaches and loss of focus at work."

According to www.migrainementors.com, an employee's productivity may drop for several days following a migraine attack. And, a World Health Organization study found that depressed workers averaged 1.8 hours of unproductive time in a regular eight-hour day. And when other health issues, such as allergies or obesity, aren't managed properly, employees tend to be absent more often and less productive when they are at work.

What can employers do?
A 2005 CCH survey asked employers what they are doing to reduce presenteeism. Feedback showed 62 percent of the organizations send sick employees home, 41 percent educate employees on the importance of staying home when sick, and 36 percent try to foster a culture that discourages employees from coming to work sick.

"Educating employees about absence policies is important, but the key is to proactively help employees manage key drivers of presenteeism," Kramer said. "We want to help companies offer the tools and resources employees need so they can stay mentally and physically healthy and be focused on their work."

Ceridian recently introduced its Health and Productivity Management Program that integrates a wide array of services designed to improve employee health, reduce absences and health claims, and increase productivity. The program helps companies both identify and evaluate the root causes of why their employees are missing work or not focusing while at work, and what major health, psychosocial and work-life concerns exist inside their organization. Ceridian then builds customized, long-term solutions to address these issues. Those solutions may include full- and self-service leave administration; an online health and productivity assessment tool; life enhancement; integrated wellness, psychosocial and work-life balance coaching; return-to-work management; and disability and disease management.

"The ultimate goal is to help companies decrease absenteeism, reduce presenteeism and lower the risk of people developing or poorly managing their health conditions -- key factors in increasing health care costs and lost productivity for companies," said Zachary Meyer, senior vice president of LifeWorks Commercial, Ceridian's EAP and Work-Life division. "We believe that this program will play a very critical role in curbing the rapidly rising health care costs and declining employee productivity many companies face today."

For more information about Ceridian's Health and Productivity Management Program, contact your Ceridian representative.

Sources

1. Bulletin to Management, Dec. 5, 2002, BNA Professional Information Center
2. New Cornell University Study, 2004 Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine