The Cost of Absenteeism and Lower Productivity
Turbulent financial times cause many Americans to worry about their financial futures, whether they are dealing with dwindling take-home pay, loss of savings, foreclosure or potential joblessness. When stress is combined with family, relationship, emotional and social issues, it can be overwhelming.
If left unaddressed, stress can adversely affect relationships, health and job performance.
The Costs Add Up
Your employees are no exception. The daily distractions of living have a definite impact on businesses and the costs of employee absenteeism and lower productivity add up:
- Child care issues - $3 billion a year in employee absenteeism1
- Elder care issues - $41 billion in lost worker productivity and absenteeism2
- Major depression – Average productivity loss of 8.4 hours per employee per week3
- Drug abuse – Leads to twice as much in medical and worker compensation claims as required for drug-free workers4
- Depression and Pain – Lead to three times the on-the-job employee productivity loss5
In a world of uncertainty, we know that LifeSynchSM’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and work-life services have a positive impact on employees.
In one study, 73 percent of survey respondents who used our EAP/work-life services reported improvements in their focus and production at work.*
*Note: Actual results may vary by participant and/or across member populations. Not all participants respond to surveys at each interval. The results reflect the proportion of respondents at each interval, rather than the percent of all members who completed an initial survey.
Sources:
1"Child Care and Parental Productivity: Making the Business Case," 2004
2 MetLife Mature Market Institute, 1999
3The 2004 Almanac for Mental Health and Addiction Professionals
4 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. National Institute on Drug Abuse, September 24 2002
5 Journal of the American Medical Association
