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Workplace health and safety is critical in every business but even with strict safety policies, procedures, safe systems and employee training in place, accidents and workplace illnesses still happen! Globally, the impact is huge.
Employees’ physical wellbeing has a huge impact on their safety in the workplace:
- Employees who don’t regularly exercise, or are predominantly sedentary during their work day, can suffer from musculoskeletal problems
- Lack of activity can lead to work-related upper body disorders
- Employees that are overweight or obese are at a higher risk of physical injury on the job
- Overweight employees are more prone to sleep apnoea and fatigue and the onset of chronic diseases like Type 2 Diabetes.
Being ahead of the curve from a health and safety perspective is not just about robust health and safety culture. It’s about creating an environment that places employee wellbeing as a top priority. Implementing an employee health and wellbeing program will also help to mitigate the impact that these lifestyle factors have on the safety of your employees.
Virgin Pulse recently ran a series of global webinars with Science Advisory Board member, Dr David Batman who went into detail about how employee lifestyle factors affect safety and gave some practical tips on how to mitigate the impact that they have. The impact of poor employee’s health is costing businesses billions of dollars globally, not just in safety claims but also in lost work days due to injury or sickness.
This year members taking part in Virgin Pulse programs achieved some impressive results:
- 64% in the obese or overweight category lost weight
- Members lost an average of 3.3kg
- The average BMI reduction was 0.48
- 75% now hit 10,000+ steps vs. 21% pre-Global Challenge
- 71% said their increased activity levels have become a habit.
Listen to Dr Batman’s webinar to find out the global impact poor employee health is having on safety and what you can do about it.
To read more about how employee health and wellbeing impacts safety, read our latest White Paper ‘How healthy employees lead to a safer workforce’.