Is it right to penalize people for smoking?

Smoking is a huge financial burden to employers and it is something that is frustrating a lot of employers because it causes other employees to question working for the company. If you start getting employees leaving your company because they are fed up with their co-workers smoking habits, you need to rethink your smoking policy. Everyone deserves a healthy working environment and smokers cause a lot of problems, which is why some companies simply aren't hiring them anymore. You have to consider all of the costs of the smokers in order to make a fair judgment as to what you need to do. Since the costs of smoking are so high, many employers are passing these extra costs right back to the smoking employees. They actually charge them for smoking. Some people find this unfair but when you consider how much money smokers are costing employers, it actually makes sense. Lets evaluate the costs of smoking and help you to understand if you should implement this type of program in your company or not.

Performance costs
Smokers on average take 6.7 more sick days per year. This means their co-workers are forced to take over for them while they are out. This leads to frustration on the other employees part because they are always working more but not getting paid more for taking on the extra workload. In addition to taking actual time off, smokers leave their desk 5 times more from their non-smoking co-workers. They head out for smoke breaks once or twice every 60-80 minutes. This also causes frustration to their co-workers that have to cover for them while they are on another smoke break, even if they are gone 5 minutes at a time. Smokers have less energy from healthy workers, leaving them to be less productive to the company.

Medical costs
The smokers on your staff are one of the biggest reasons why you may have incredibly high insurance premiums. While obese employees also cost your company a lot, smokers cost a lot due to their increased health risks to themselves and their co-workers. On average smokers will increase your premiums by 31%. They also make 6 more visits to the doctor each year from your healthy employees and they cost close to 80 billion dollars in healthcare costs yearly. Since your company is penalized with higher premiums because of the smokers, passing the buck to them makes sense. Some companies are now starting to do this with their other employees that aren't caring for their bodies such as those that are living obese lifestyles and aren't following doctors orders for their health.

It can be hard for some employers to figure out what to do with their smoking employees. Since you want to look for ways to keep your employees happy and healthy, telling them to stop engaging in a lifestyle habit like smoking can cause a lot of concerns in the company. You have to work with the smokers to let them know how much their premiums will go up and what type of program you are willing to do in order to help them quit smoking. If you can get your employees involved in a smoking cessation program where they will be rewarded for quitting smoking, you have a higher chance of keeping them on staff along with making their co-workers happier since they don't have to deal with the risk of second hand smoke anymore.

Contact your insurance company and discuss smoking cessation programs with them. They may have some good ideas for you to try and may be able to help you start up a smoking cessation program that will get your employees to quit once and for all.