{"id":2471,"date":"2018-12-14T13:55:59","date_gmt":"2018-12-14T18:55:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cardinus.com\/us\/?p=2471"},"modified":"2024-12-20T11:45:55","modified_gmt":"2024-12-20T16:45:55","slug":"is-it-health-and-safety-yes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cardinus.com\/us\/insights\/health-and-safety\/is-it-health-and-safety-yes\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it Health and Safety? Yes!"},"content":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1734713152975{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]Dr. Ann Hawkins<\/span><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>of<\/span> 24hr<\/span> Virtual Clinic<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>discusses stress, presenteeism and absenteeism and asks, are these health and safety issues?<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In 1964, Bob Dylan recorded \u2013 \u201cThe Times They Are a Changing\u201d \u2013 and changes are on the horizon in workers\u2019 compensation. Some elements of the changes involve total employee health – physical and mental – and how health can influence safety and a reduction of on-the-job injuries. Corporate interest in health and safety, like advancing other aspects of employee work environment, almost always translates into a tangible ROI in better company productivity or service. Currently, many companies place health and well being in the Benefits or HR silo and safety in Risk or Work Comp silo –\u00a0 two different silos within the company\u00a0 – and in some instances two silos which don\u2019t converse. Integration of total employee health positively affects the corporate bottom line \u2013 the silo doesn\u2019t matter!<\/p>\n

Industrial Safety and Hygiene News (May 2017) stated: \u201c<\/strong>An integrated health and safety program is no longer an operations cost to be controlled but an investment in a company\u2019s overall effort to improved profitability and competitiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at three of the more critical health\/safety issues \u2013 stress, presenteeism, and absenteeism – and see how integrated total employee health improves a company\u2019s profitability and competitiveness.<\/p>\n

Stress<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

If you had to classify stress, would it be a health or safety issue? Yes, stress is both a health and a safety dilemma. For the most part, no one can see stress, but stress definitely affects employees lack of concentration and efficiency, which many times leads to incidents and accidents at the workplace. Stress affects all levels of employees – a mistyped word or miscalculated financial analysis due to stress and lack of concentration at the C suite level, an ongoing \u201cpain in the neck,\u201d a musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) aggravated by stress at the workstation, a lifting injury, or slip and fall on the work floor due to lack of focus or training.<\/p>\n

The Mayo Clinic, in a published article (April 28, 2016), determined that stress left unchecked\u00a0can\u00a0contribute to many\u00a0health problems, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes.<\/p>\n

Stress.org determined that 46% of workers are stressed about workload, 28% because of people issues at work, 20% due to life\/work balance issues and 6% because of lack of job security. The result for the US is over $300 billion spent annually due to:<\/p>\n