Why you should be concerned about employee health

Employees are an essential part of every business. And good employees are a very important part of every successful business. One thing that makes an employee a good employee is their overall health. Healthy employees are happy and productive employees. There are several reasons that an employer should be concerned about their employees overall health. This article will discuss some of the important reasons why every employer should want healthy employees.

Insurance

It is important for employers to offer their employees health insurance. Offering health insurance can provide the employer many benefits. When an employer offers health insurance it can be a tax deduction for the business. This is helpful in reducing the amount of taxes that a company owes. Many employees have families and need health insurance for themselves and their families. When a company offers health insurance to employees it can encourage employees (who take advantage of the health insurance offered by their company) to stay with the company. This is a great way to keep good employees. However, offering insurance could also be costing a company money.

If the company has many employees who are obese, overweight, or who smoke, and these employees take advantage of the health insurance that the company offers, it could be costing the employer more money. It has been documented that obese employees are absent from work more often and seem to file up to twice as many workers' compensation claims compared to those employees who are not overweight or obese. Obese employees tend to cost a business more money in health care costs each year and in productivity. Employees who smoke cost the company more money as well. These people are more likely to get diseases such as lung disease, cancer, and heart disease. These diseases cost insurance companies more money and the cost gets put on the employers offering these people health insurance.

Productivity

Employers should be concerned about their employees' health because unhealthy employees are less productive. When employees are less productive the business cannot run as it should. This can cost the employer money.

OSHA

OSHA is the Occupational Safety and Health Act. It is in place to help ensure that employees have safe and healthy working conditions. Under OSH Act, an employer needs to provide their employees with a healthy work environment free of hazards that are likely to cause or are causing death or even serious harm. Employers need to abide by the rules and regulations to help keep their employees healthy if they are covered by OSHA.

Office morale

When one employee is unhealthy, either because they are sick from a bacteria or virus, because of stress, or any other reason they can bring the morale of the other employees down. When employees are unhappy they are less productive, working will be more of a chore and may not be a high priority. It is important for an employer to have very sick employees stay home so they don't spread the germ around to the rest of the office. Employers should help employees that are dealing with stressors by referring them to a councilor or asking if they need a little time off from work.

Employers can help increase office morale by encouraging team work, making sure that employees' thoughts and ideas are heard and taken into consideration and by making the workplace a good place to be.