Great steps to improve employee health and reduce absenteeism

Do you find that you have a lot of employee that are ill and constantly taking time off? If you have a lot of absenteeism going on, you need to take steps to try and improve your employee health and reduce absenteeism. It may come down to doing something as simply as using sterilization wipes on the phones and doorknobs as germs are all around the office. As an employer you need to do what you can in order to focus on improving the health of your employees. As you do this, you will have an easier time providing your employees with better health benefits and other things that will contribute to their jobs. Each year close to 20 billion dollars are lost on absenteeism. This is an outstanding number and it causes a lot of other concerns in the company besides just a decrease in productivity along with paid time off costs.

With so many employees taking time off, employers need to draw their attention to this and to prevent 12.8 million work days from being lost each year. Take the time to sit down with each employee and have a one on one with them. This helps you to gain some insight into their lives and to see if their stress level is causing them to take time off work or if they have other problems that are causing issues to arise. Stress, depression, and anxiety are all some of the biggest concerns when it comes to employee health and these concerns will lead to a lot of absenteeism. Bring your employees in for a meeting and talk to them about their concerns and find out what you can do to help them. If they are experiencing high levels of stress you may want to talk to them about reducing their workload and to see if you can do other things that will help them to keep their stress under control.

A good option is to add an on-site exercise facility for your employees. Here they will be able to exercise and they can actually reduce their stress load. Exercise releases natural chemicals into the body and it can help you to manage stress and to have more energy as well. It is a great way to have the energy and motivation you need to complete your work in a timely manner.

Managers need to step back and recognize if they have an unhealthy working environment. This can be easy to spot if you notice the germ bug has hit the company. It might come down to simply cleaning the company in order to reduce the germ load that is going around the office. Healthy workplaces not only include germ free environments they also include other things that make it easy for people to do their jobs like effective communication along with trust in the workplace. As people are able to work together, it can actually help to reduce absenteeism because people love working together and they enjoy coming to work.

If you notice that people are showing up late or leaving early, it might be a good idea to offer flexible working schedules. This is a great way to get your employees motivated to work as they have a little more control over the hours in which they are working. This makes it easy to reduce absenteeism because the employees can "sleep in" if they need to on some days and work late in exchange. The other great part about flexible working hours is that it also helps your employees to have time to go to the gym and to avoid the rush hour traffic and other things.

Offer incentives to your employees that are making steps to improve their health. People love money and other prizes and getting a $300 reward for losing weight or quitting smoking is a great incentive to a lot of people.