Why You Should Care About Your Employees’ Health
Employees’ health is not something many business owners often think about. Obviously, you want your staff to be in good health, but it’s not at the top of your list of priorities. After all, you’ve got a lot on your mind when you’re running a business.
The thing is, your employees’ health is important to your business; maybe even more important than you realise. In fact, if your employees are repeatedly ill, it could have a seriously negative impact on your SME. Here are three simple reasons why you should care about the health of your staff.
Healthy employees are more productive
When people feel good, they work harder. When people are ill they often suffer from fatigue and are too tired to produce work at their usual rate. And when you have a small workforce, one person slowing down can affect the whole business. If an individual employee is late on their part of a project, then the next stage is delayed because of that missed deadline. This could mean that clients get their product late or other staff members have to work overtime.
Healthy employees produce better quality work
Even the most basic cold or flu can be a huge distraction for an employee. Whether they have to pause every few minutes to blow their nose or have a headache that simply won’t go away, it takes their mind off their work. This means that mistakes are more common and things get missed. The quality of a sick employee’s work will likely decrease while they’re ill. It’s not because they’re lazy or don’t care, it’s because they’re more concerned with how awful they are feeling at that moment.
Healthy employees don’t take sick days
It’s not likely your SME has a large workforce. You don’t have many employees and each staff member has a particular job description. This means that if one person is off sick, it can be a big problem for your business. When one person is in hospital or sentenced to bed rest, the others have to pick up the slack. If that person does something unique that requires certain skills, there may be no one who can take over that employee’s workload. That’s why even one member of your staff being off for a week can have terrible consequences for your business.
Your employee’s health is something you should be concerned about. When people get sick, it means they’re less productive, the quality of their work goes down and they may have to take sick leave.
*This article was brought to you by Essential Med, which provides a registered network of Essential Med doctors.