Chronic disease is on the rise. Nearly half of Australians have at least one chronic condition and over three quarters (78.6%) had at least one long-term health condition in 2020-21. The affect that this has on business is substantial. In this article, we go through the data to highlight why investing in employee health contributes to a healthier bottom line.

Long-term health conditions are those that last six months or more. Chronic health conditions are those that are long-term, pose significant health problems, and have been a focus of ongoing public health surveillance.

In Australia, the 10 most common chronic health conditions are:

• Arthritis
• Asthma
• Back pain
• Cancer
• Cardiovascular disease
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
• Diabetes
• Kidney disease
• Mental health conditions
• Osteoporosis

Nearly half of Australians have one or more of the above, and almost one in five have two or more chronic health conditions. Despite this, most of these conditions can be prevented as they were due to modifiable risk factors. These included:

• Tobacco use
• Alcohol misuse
• Poor diet
• Physical inactivity
• Unhealthy weight
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol.

This burden is borne not only by the individual though, but also by businesses and the community through reduced productivity and participation.

How is this affecting business?

Research shows that there is a clear association between overall health status and work performance. Beyond Blue and Comcare note poor employee health contributes to:

• Reduced productivity 
• High stress levels
• Poor job satisfaction 
• Increased sickness 
• Growing absenteeism
• High staff turnover

Medibank estimates that poor employee health and absenteeism are costing Australian business $7.1 billion and presenteeism nearly four times as much ($25.7 billion).

For businesses, they found that individuals with poor health behaviours have up to nine times as much sickness absence when compared with individuals with a good health and wellbeing score (HWB) and only contributed 49 effective hours per month, as opposed to 143 hours.

Why is health and wellbeing promotion in the workplace so important?

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2010 report on Risk Factors and Participation in work found that almost all (96%) of working-age people reported at least one risk factor for chronic disease, whilst 75% reported multiple risk-factors. 

Most Australians spend about one third of their lives at work so promoting positive health and wellbeing in the workplace makes sense.

What are the benefits of investing in worker health and wellbeing?

Whilst all these numbers are alarming, it has been shown that organisations which implement health promotion strategies can have wide-ranging positive effects at an individual and organisation level. 

Some of the benefits that have been found include:

• Workers’ health risk factors can be reduced by up to 56%
• Productivity gains of up to 15% can be achieved.
• Reductions in sick leave absenteeism by 25.3% 
• Reductions in workers’ compensation costs by 40.7%
• A ROI of $5.81 for every $1 invested in employee health and wellbeing.

The great thing about many health and wellbeing initiatives is that they can be low cost, require only small changes but can provide big health gains. For example, if we all did an extra 15 minutes of brisk walking, five days a week, Australia’s disease burden due to physical inactivity would be cut by about 14 per cent.

If you would like assistance monitoring the health and wellbeing of your workforce, we can help you to gain insight into your workforce and identify potential health-related risks.

You may also wish to download our posters which have health and wellbeing tips including hydration, sleep and stretching. Place these in a common area where your workers can see them.