Rising absenteeism. Ensuring that employees do not call in sick, especially during a reorganization. Motivating employees in the right way so they deliver top performance. Complying with ESG standards to avoid fines. Strengthen your brand. Attract good staff. These are just some of the issues organizations can deal with when it comes to health.
Employees are the foundation of business processes. Without healthy, mentally strong staff, less good business results. So it makes sense for any company to invest in the mental fitness of employees.
The labor market is tight. For every 100 unemployed, there were 122 vacancies open in the first quarter of 2023 (CBS). This means that organizations must distinguish themselves in order to attract and retain top talent. Remarkably, thousands of dollars are spent on recruitment and selection without blinking an eye. Budget to keep current employees motivated, resilient, optimistic and satisfied? Making them less likely to get sick or leave? That remains to be seen.
A missed opportunity. Because this staff no longer needs to be inducted, knows the organization and has probably already earned credits. To prevent these employees from leaving anyway, the organization will have to be alert to the mental health of employees and signals given by employees. Are employees valued? Are they still satisfied? Do they still have the right mindset? Are their talents being used to their full potential? And are managers trained to lead appropriately?
At the request of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, TNO examined trends around burnout symptoms among young people (aged 18 to 34). Additional qualitative research among young workers revealed that performance pressure, life uncertainties and social pressure are the main sources of experienced stress. The feeling of always having to do everything right, being constantly on call, care responsibilities, and the combination of work and family give a lot of stress.
Over the period 2015-2022, a slight increase in absenteeism due to work-related psychological complaints is observed among young workers in almost all the sectors studied. In the care and education sectors, where relatively many young women are employed, not only is the share of workers with burnout complaints high, but the group of workers with few burnout complaints has been decreasing in recent years.
Our society is currently changing rapidly. The working population is also becoming more diverse with diverse welfare and work needs. Inclusion is a concept that is becoming increasingly important. Are there already ironclad policies in place in this area? And do managers have the right people-focused skills to motivate and inspire employees in the right way?
The population is getting older. On January 1, 2023, according to CBS, the Netherlands will have 3,601,167 residents aged 65 or older. That is 20.2 percent of the population. In 1990, this was still 12.8 percent of the population. This means that the share of the working population is shrinking and the tightness in the labor market is only getting worse. At the same time, it is important to keep this older group of employees optimally healthy.
There is also a group of employees who do not want to retire at retirement age. With some work adjustments, this group of people would like to continue participating in the labor process. This presents opportunities for organizations. Opportunities that can be seized through policy and training to keep this older group of employees mentally resilient, healthy, vital and optimistic. In this way, your organization can benefit from this valuable group of employees for a long time to come.
For years, psychosocial workload among workers has been on the rise. This manifests itself, among other things, in increasing work stress and burn-out complaints. The result is reduced employability and increasing absenteeism costs (TNO). According to ArboNed, an employee with burnout complaints is off sick for an average of 279 days. Per day this costs the employer 300 euros, according to TNO. This amounts to 279 x 300 = 83,700 euros.
These are only the costs for absence in hours. Add to this the costs of hiring a temp or interim worker, the training time, work that remains unfinished, lost income because services cannot be provided, damage to the company image, complaint handling, the extra workload for colleagues (with a greater likelihood of illness), projects that are postponed, projects that must be cancelled and possibly even legal costs.
As of 01-01-2024, listed companies are required to report on ESG. ESG stands for Environment, Social and Governance. In fact, ESG is the international term for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Welfare, health (S) and people-oriented leadership (G) are part of this socially responsible way of doing business. If a company scores poorly on ESG, there can be negative consequences such as: fines, investors dropping out, reputational damage, customers dropping out or employees leaving.
While this requirement does not currently apply to smaller companies, striving for ESG standards offers significant benefits for smaller companies. It demonstrates that your organization is people-oriented, engaged and progressive. Also, pursuing ESG standards increases your attractiveness as an employer within today's tight labor market. Finally, if you do business with companies that are required to report on ESG, your company may be indirectly affected by ESG. Therefore, it makes sense to start looking now at how your company can optimize the S(Social) and G (governance) components.