Small businesses should increase the amount of time and resources into ensuring employees are healthy at work, according to employment relations service Acas.
The advice follows a recent review of the health of the working age population by national director for health and work Dame Carol Black, which revealed that ill-health costs the British economy £100bn a year.
The review also highlighted that businesses should seek to take early intervention by investing in improving the health and wellbeing of their staff, identify measures that will reduce ill-health and help staff to remain in work or quickly return to work after a period of absence.
"The review by Dame Carol Black shows that creating a healthy workplace has strong benefits for individuals and organisations," said Ed Sweeney, Acas chair. "It also places a lot emphasis on the role early intervention can play in reducing the problem of ill-health at work and this ties in strongly with Acas' ‘prevention over cure' approach to dealing with wider employment issues."
Acas claims the key indicators of a healthy workplace are having:
- Confident line managers who are trained in people skills
- Employees who feel valued and involved in the organisation
Work can have a positive impact on our health and wellbeing which in turn can boost productivity and effectiveness of a business
- Managers who use appropriate health services such as occupational health to tackle absence and help get people back to work
- Managers who promote an attendance culture by conducting return-to-work interviews
- Jobs that are flexible and well designed
In order to help small businesses tackle this issue, Acas has produced a new guide called ‘Health, work and wellbeing in the workplace', which can be downloaded free from www.acas.org.uk [1].
The booklet claims to help companies recognise health problems with employees and learn what makes a healthy workplace. It also offers a health, work and wellbeing checklist.
"Work can have a positive impact on our health and wellbeing which in turn can boost productivity and effectiveness of a business," added Sweeney. "Our guide can help businesses to develop good workplace relationships so that managers are fully trained in people skills and employees are valued and content."