Workplace Health & Performance Facts & Figures
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Financial Performance
The current cost of lost labour from absenteeism and presenteeism due to mental illness in Canada alone is over $20 billion annually and rising (Conference Board of Canada, 2015).
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Workplace stress can result in a loss of 2.14 working days per employee per year due to presenteeism, meaning a total annual cost of $533 per individual (Miraglia & Johns, 2018).
Canadian companies lose an estimated $16.6 billion in productivity per year due to workers calling in sick, as a result of mental health (Mercer, 2018).
Presenteeism has been repeatedly found to be more costly than absenteeism (e.g., Collins et al., 2005; Hemp, 2004), with estimates ranging from 1.8 to 10 times that of absence (Miraglia & Johns, 2018).
Customer Experience
Companies that lead in customer experience have 60% more engaged employees, and study after study has shown that investing in employee experience impacts the customer experience and can generate a high ROI for the company (Morgan, 2018)
By quantifying the relationship between employee engagement and sales (starting in 2007), Lowe's found that a conservative difference between the highest- and lowest-engaged stores was more than $1 million in sales per year (Green 2017).
Overall Effectiveness & Performance
Companies with highly engaged employees outrank their competitor’s performance by 147% (Gallup, 2018).
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According to robust research done by Amy Edmondson et al, a culture of psychological safety is the number one determinant of effectiveness and efficiency of teams and organizations (Harvard Business Review, 2019).
“According to a recent survey among over 1,000 UK HR professionals, stress is the number one cause of long-term absence and the second most common cause of short-term absence after minor illness (CIPD, 2016)
A study by economists at the University of Warwick in England found that happiness led to a 12% spike in productivity while unhappy workers proved 10% less productive (Green 2017).
Reputation & Brand
87% of people who like Starbucks are drawn because of how the company treats their employees (Morgan, 2018).
Companies that have a healthy culture, attract top talent and keep that top talent.
(WHO, 2010, CDC, 2019, CBoC, 2015)
Innovative, Productive, Inspired People
Companies with highly engaged employees outrank their competitor’s performance by 147% (Gallup, 2018).
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Employee well-being directly impacts employee productivity and performance (Sharma, 2016; Wu and Chen, 2017; Aston, 2011; Pinho et al, 2014 and Longenecker et al, 2009).
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Want more research? ​​​
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Green, S. (2017). 1 - Culture: More Than Just an HR Thing. In Culture hacker: Reprogramming your employee experience to improve customer service, retention, and performance. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
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Harvard Business Review (2019). Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/ideacast/2019/01/creating-psychological-safety-in-the-workplace
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Integrated Benefits Institute (2010). The Impact of Employer Health and Productivity Management Practice. Retrieved from https://ibiweb.org/?ACT=65&id=b0-teA-9WDwrId7c5xC4sZDrvWxwFAcSo7zZSXGGqx__IYoZSnXT1esvau7kAqzCxW3JFVIRFr_iK_fZ9X6PBg..
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Kataria, A., Rastogi, R., & Garg, P. (2013). Organizational effectiveness as a function of employee engagement. South Asian Journal of Management, 20(4), 56-73. Retrieved from http://0-search.proquest.com.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/docview/1519059074?accountid=8408
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Kumar, S., McCalla, M., & Lybeck, E. (2009). Operational impact of employee wellness programs: A business case study. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 58(6), 581-597. doi: http://0-dx.doi.org.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/10.1108/17410400910977109
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Kumar, S., & Prevost, J. K. (2011). An ounce of prevention: Revenue and cost economics of partnering with health and wellness services. Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, 10(5), 401-423. doi: http://0-dx.doi.org.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/10.1057/rpm.2009.52
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Markos and Sridevi (2010). Employee Engagement: The Key to Improving Performance. International Journal of Business and Management. Vol. 5, No. 12. Retrieved from http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijbm/article/viewFile/6745/6332
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Mercer. (2018). Finding a measurable solution to the growing threat of absenteeism. Retrieved from https://www.mercer.ca/en/our-thinking/total-health-management.html
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Miraglia, M., & Johns, G. (2018). Presenteeism and Well-Being at Work. In C. Cooper & L. Lu (Eds.), Presenteeism at Work (Cambridge Companions to Management, pp. 183-218). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781107183780.010
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Morgan, Blake (2018) The Un-Ignorable Link Between Employee Experience And Customer Experience. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2018/02/23/the-un-ignorable-link-between-employee-experience-and-customer-
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experience/#6c50ee448dc1.
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Pinho, J. C., Ana, P. R., & Dibb, S. (2014). The role of corporate culture, market orientation and organisational commitment in organisational performance. The Journal of Management Development, 33(4), 374-398. doi: http://0-dx.doi.org.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/10.1108/JMD-03-2013-0036
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Sharma, P., Kong, T. T. C., & Kingshott, R. P. J. (2016). Internal service quality as a driver of employee satisfaction, commitment and performance. Journal of Service Management, 27(5), 773-797. Retrieved from http://0-search.proquest.com.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/docview/1826443785?accountid=8408
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The Conference Board of Canada (2017) Wellness Initiatives: Trends in Organizational Health Management. The Conference Board of Canada.
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Yu, K and Bang, S. C. (2013). What is the Impact of Improved Health to Organizational Performance? Cornell University. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1046&context=student
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Wu, C., Chen, I., & Chen, J. (2017). A STUDY INTO THE IMPACT OF EMPLOYEE WELLNESS AND JOB SATISFACTION ON JOB PERFORMANCE. International Journal of Organizational Innovation (Online), 10(2), 252-269. Retrieved from http://0-search.proquest.com.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/docview/1975986834?accountid=8408
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Porter, M. E., & Kramer, M. R. (2006). Strategy & society: The link between competitive advantage and corporate social responsibility. Harvard Business Review, 84(12), 78-92.