The Economic Value of Healthy Workers

You often hear that your health affects how well you work, and when you think about it, it makes sense. Who works as hard or as effectively when they’re sick as when they’re well?

That’s part of the logic behind most company-sponsored health interventions—not only will your employees view you as a proactive company that cares about its staff, but they’ll also likely perform closer to their potential if they are healthier. That’s the theory anyway—but what’s the evidence to back it up?

Well according to peer reviewed research by Australian Health Management, it’s actually stronger than you may think. Researchers at AHM tracked the health, productivity and absence data of 77 health insurance employees over more than a year. What they found was that changes in health risks (for example physical activity, blood pressure, stress, smoking, weight, etc) were significantly associated with changes in “work impairment,” or on-the-job-productivity loss. As health risks decreased, work impairment decreased; as health risks increased, work impairment increased.

On average, each risk factor increased or reduced over time was associated with a change of 4.2 percentage points of work impairment. That’s the equivalent of 1.6 hours in an average 38 hour week.