Editorial: The Case for Wellness

A recent Watson Wyatt study estimates that illness-related work absences can cost the average Canadian firm up to $10 million a year in lost productivity. The study also finds that companies with the most effective health and productivity programs generate 20% more revenue per employee. According to a well-known study by Duxbury, Higgins and Johnson, work-life conflict cost Canadian businesses around $2.7 billion in work absences in 1996–’97.

Obviously, measuring the relationship between health and productivity isn’t an exact science: the different methods used for calculating costs and ROI make it difficult to generalize outcomes. But the existing knowledge gap shouldn’t deter decision-makers from making workplace health a priority. As leading work expert Graham Lowe wrote in a 2003 report prepared for Health Canada: “Even though the picture is incomplete, over the past 20 years the evidence from increasingly rigorous studies supports rather than refutes the economic benefits of workplace health promotion.”

Meanwhile, employers who don’t need any more convincing are taking action—and seeing results. Our Healthy Outcomes Conference report outlines what four forward-thinking companies—Purolator, RBC, Xerox Canada and Campbell Company of Canada—are doing to improve employee health. For them, and undoubtedly countless others, workplace health is working—and working well.

To keep you abreast of the latest workplace health research, Graham Lowe joins Working Well as a regular columnist. Lowe is president of The Graham Lowe Group in Kelowna, B.C., and a professor emeritus at University of Alberta. Read his first column, Getting a grip on stress.

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