The costs of poor employee health

When employers consider the costs they have that concern their employees, they probably think about wages, sick leave, benefits, etc. But many employers do not think about the costs that are associated with employees who suffer from poor health. These costs are very important for employers to think about. This article discusses some of the costs employers have for their employees who have poor health.

Health insurance

Employers who offer health insurance to their employees do them a great service. But offering health insurance when a lot of the employees have poor health can really cost an employer a lot of money. Employees who suffer from poor health require more doctor visits, prescriptions, treatments, and perhaps even surgery. All of these things can increase the costs of health insurance for the employer, especially if they have many employees who have poor health.

Use of paid sick leave

Employers who have a lot of sick employees will also pay a lot of money for paid sick leave. Paid sick leave is another great service that employers can offer to their employees. And this service can be a great thing for both the employee and the employers when it is used sparingly. Employees who are normally healthy are bound to get sick every once in awhile and sick leave can save the rest of the employees from getting the illness as well as get the employee healthier faster.

But when an employer has many sick employees who are constantly taking paid sick leave, the employer will end up paying for the sick employees to stay home with hardly any work getting done at the work place.

Sick employees at work

Another cost that employers need to consider when it comes to having poor employee health is the cost of having sick employees actually come to work. Sometimes employees will not use their sick leave, they do not have any left, or the employer does not offer the sick leave. Whatever the case, the sick employees come to work. And usually there are two costs that the employer will have to consider when sick employees come to work.

One cost is the lack of productivity from the sick employee or employees. An employee who is sick is less likely to perform to the best of their ability. They are more likely to make mistakes and work at a much slower pace when compared to healthy employees. This lack of productivity and slow pace can cost an employer a lot of money. And the more sick employees they have the more money it will cost them.

The other cost that employers need to consider when sick employees come to work is that they will probably spread the germs to even more people in the office.With more employees sick there will be even worse productivity and some employees may end up not even coming into work whether or not they have sick time.

From these examples, employers can see that there are high costs that come along with employees with poor health. Luckily for employers, there are many ways that they can encourage their sick employees to get healthy. Though some of these ways cost money, an employer will end up saving a lot of money in the end by not having to pay for employing employees with poor health.