As companies are increasingly concerned with how employee well-being affects their bottom lines, a Humana Inc. study has identified top employee stressors it says take a toll on workers' health.
In the 2017 Humana Wellness Trends Report five trends are identified that the study says are "making a significant impact in the world of wellness." Although none are new, they are the target of increasing attention, as their prominence in impacting employee health grows.
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Pointing out in the report that health care costs currently account for an average of 7.6 percent of an organization's budget, Humana writes that "addressing these trends in the workplace can make a significant difference overall."
An aging population, with attendant problems such as employees serving as caregivers to older relatives, is one trend affecting well-being. Rising health care costs can siphon away employees' own funds as they struggle to help loved ones, and so can the physical and emotional stress of caregiving.
In fact, the report finds that, with approximately 20 percent of the U.S. workforce acting as caregivers, the cost to companies' bottom lines is approximately $33 billion, with an additional $13 billion in related health care costs.
But there's also the flip side, as employees themselves age and retire later. These employees, say the report, "may incur more health care costs due to having a higher likelihood of chronic conditions. Also, those who planned to retire later were 'more likely to report stress, poor health, and feeling stuck in their jobs than people expecting to retire sooner.'"
Wellness programming, flexible schedules and more sensitive manager training can support such employees so that companies can reap the benefit of their years of experience and dependability.
Financial well-being is another big one, with 37 percent of full-time employees saying that they think about or deal with financial issues when they're supposed to be working. Money, it adds, has been employees' top stressor since 2007, and nearly half of employees have difficulty "paying household expenses on time."
The report cites a survey of human resource professionals in which approximately 70 percent believe personal financial challenges had a "large or some impact" on employee performance; in addition, about half reported that employee stress (50 percent) and the ability to focus on work are two top concerns.
The third trend, that of mindfulness, can "help ease 'the effects of stress, anxiety, and other negative emotions,'" the report says, adding that mindfulness can extend to helping with such health issues as quitting smoking and other beneficial lifestyle changes.
Sleep is the fourth trend, with employees suffering from sleep disorders — the study cites an estimate that a third of the U.S. workforce has at least one such disorder — and 74 percent of employees 30 years old or older reporting lack of sleep as affecting their performance at work. Lack of sleep can not only cause "presenteeism" and poor performance, but also result in errors and even accidents, and cause health problems including obesity, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and depression.
The fifth trend, described as "emerging," is what Humana terms "the connected experience 2.0." It cites as an example mobile device apps that capture data that can be analyzed to better understand the app user, such as Fitbits or other devices.
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Such data can be analyzed by employers to better understand employees' actions and motivations, it says, and help them to learn what is driving organizational costs and how to curb them.
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