Ever had a co-worker hack and sneeze her way through a conversation at work? How focused were you on what she was saying? My bet would be that -- for at least a part of the conversation -- you were thinking about what to do to avoid catching whatever ailed her. You are not alone.
For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, the flu season is looming in the near future. Some of us will choose to get a flu shot. This year “U.S. health officials urged a record number of Americans on Wednesday to get vaccinated against flu” reports Reuters. Whether or not your employees choose to get vaccinated, there are steps that organizations and individuals can take to lessen the spread of infectious diseases. If, however, your organization wishes to educate employees further about the vaccine, the Ontario government provides “information about the flu shot available in 24 languages" here.
Productivity suffers a number of ways when employees become sick. The sick employee either works at a lower level of performance, or is absent.
The best defense is prevention. Any step that halts the spread of disease in the workplace and lowers the number of employees affected will help a company’s bottom line.
I think most people now understand the importance of minimizing contact with others when they are sick to reduce the risk of spreading illness, but not every individual heeds this advice. On the other hand, employees who will not be paid if they miss work or – worse yet – may lose their jobs, go to work out of necessity. In this case, the impact of a number of sick employees needs to be weighed against the cost of a few sick days.
Human costs of the flu in the U.S. – according to OSHA – are as follows: “According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), influenza causes approximately 200,000 hospitalizations and 36,000 deaths in the U.S. each year.”
Financial costs in the U.S. – according to a 2006 Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. report discussed on CNNMoney.com – could be as high as $10 billion dollars. This estimate does not include the costs of the impaired job functioning of ill employees.
Furthermore, Michael Mason wrote in 2006 in The New York Times that “Because of lost productivity, ill workers on the job account for as much as 60 percent of corporate health costs, according to researchers at Cornell University -- more than absentee workers, and far more than companies pay in direct medical and disability costs.”
Yet, there will always be employees who do not have sick leave, what then? Educating workers about proper hygiene and hand washing, providing information about vaccines, keeping work stations clean (especially shared items like phones), or providing hand sanitizers can help reduce the costs of workplace illness.
Gannet Health Services on the Cornell University website provide a number of resources that can be used to educate employees about how to stop the spread of infectious diseases. The main messages have to do with avoiding contact with ill workers, and proper hygiene. Providing an employee with the option to work from home – if possible – can keep the employee on the job and reduce the spread of disease.
Do you have any additional suggestions?
References:
CNNMoney.com. Flu could cost employers $10 billion [www.money.cnn.com]. November 27, 2006.
Dunham, Will. “US CDC urges flu shots, sees ample vaccine supply.” Reuters, September 24, 2008.
Gannet Health Services Cornell University. “Help Stop the Flu” [www.gannett.cornell.edu]. Obtained October 23, 2008.
Mason, Michael. “Sniffling, Sneezing and Turning Cubicles Into Sick Bays.” The New York Times, December 26, 2006.
U.S. Department of Labor. “Seasonal Influenza Vaccination-Important Protection for Healthcare Workers Fact Sheet” [www.osha.gov]. November, 2007.
