The overall literature on presenteeism is not consistent in different situations: Expert
While it’s a problem plaguing workplaces — a 2004 study from Cornell University estimates presenteeism costs the American economy US$150 billion dollars a year and an average of 6.5 days of annual productivity lost per employee — research into presenteeism and how to reduce it is tenuous at best, according to a Toronto researcher.
It’s an issue Carlo Ammendolia, a researcher at Mount Sinai hospital in Toronto and a scientist with the Institute for Work and Health (IWH), and his team struggled with recently when they went about trying to discover what workplace interventions worked best to combat presenteeism.
A review of more than 2,000 articles turned up 47 articles relevant to the research.
But the team was only able to find 14 studies they accepted as scientifically valid as they tried to find effective workplace wellness programs to reduce presenteeism.
“The overall literature is quite young and not consistent and not many studies were duplicated in different situations,” he said. “So the results right now are preliminary at best.”
The study, published in the May 2011 issue of BMC Public Health,
found 10 effective workplace health interventions. Included in the successful programs were worksite exercise and self-timed work breaks.
Another effective workplace wellness intervention found in the studies was education of supervisors in terms of identifying people who might be at risk for health problems and then referring them to health resources appropriately.
One study in Japan achieved good results when supervisors were taught how to identify depression among their staff. Identifying these individuals early and giving them appropriate treatment seemed to be an effective intervention, said Ammendolia.
It’s an approach Karen Seward, vice-president of marketing and business development with Morneau Shepell based in Toronto, agrees with.
It’s important for employers to make sure supervisors are aware, she said.
Often a manager or supervisor is able to have a conversation with someone about things going on in the workplace like a job well done on a project or a failure to meet a deadline, but they are not necessarily equipped to talk to workers if they notice a change in behaviour or mental health, she said.
“They’re not so good at saying ‘Hey, I see some of your behaviours change, there’s something going on, there’s something different.’”
For companies it’s a matter of asking themselves how they should train managers and supervisors on awareness and what tools are available to an employee dealing with a mental or physical health issue, she said.
Other measures for reducing presenteeism that seemed to be effective from Ammendolia’s study included tailoring programs to the needs of individual workers and allowing workers to participate in the creation of wellness programs.
When workers are involved in the design process they tend to have more at stake and a better chance at following through because they were part of the design, said Ammendolia.
“So getting them involved in the actual interventions themselves seemed to be useful.”
Although there were common threads discovered in effective intervention programs, a lot of the results the team found were based on one study and there was not much consistency throughout the studies.
In fact, Ammendolia’s team frequently found conflicting studies. For example, with incentives. There’s a lot of debate around whether or not an incentive based program works and Ammendolia said his study wasn’t able to answer that question.
Ammendolia’s team will be taking the information they’ve gathered and using it to build a wellness program for a workplace in the financial industry.
The plan should be complete by the end of this year, but the funding for the study didn’t include money for the next steps.
“We’re hopefully optimistic that once we’ve designed the program that we will find funding to actually implement it and evaluate it,” he said.
Overall, presenteeism is a function of a society that is reactive rather than proactive when it comes to health care.
People aren’t like to do something about their health until there is something wrong, he said.
“Although that’s changing a little bit, it’s still very much a reactive culture.”
In most workplaces people are working more and they have less and less free time.
People are so stressed out that when they are asked to participate in wellness opportunities they opt out because they don’t have time, said Ammendolia.
“It’s not high on the priority list because the stuff on their desks is more priority driven and production is more priority driven.”
Until there is a problem, that is.
“We need to sort of find ways to change that kind of thinking that you have to do things before they happen,” he said.
Seward agrees.
“If I’m not feeling well it’s not OK to ignore not feeling well and keep working because the issue is not going to go away.”
It’s an issue Carlo Ammendolia, a researcher at Mount Sinai hospital in Toronto and a scientist with the Institute for Work and Health (IWH), and his team struggled with recently when they went about trying to discover what workplace interventions worked best to combat presenteeism.
A review of more than 2,000 articles turned up 47 articles relevant to the research.
But the team was only able to find 14 studies they accepted as scientifically valid as they tried to find effective workplace wellness programs to reduce presenteeism.
“The overall literature is quite young and not consistent and not many studies were duplicated in different situations,” he said. “So the results right now are preliminary at best.”
The study, published in the May 2011 issue of BMC Public Health,
found 10 effective workplace health interventions. Included in the successful programs were worksite exercise and self-timed work breaks.
Another effective workplace wellness intervention found in the studies was education of supervisors in terms of identifying people who might be at risk for health problems and then referring them to health resources appropriately.
One study in Japan achieved good results when supervisors were taught how to identify depression among their staff. Identifying these individuals early and giving them appropriate treatment seemed to be an effective intervention, said Ammendolia.
It’s an approach Karen Seward, vice-president of marketing and business development with Morneau Shepell based in Toronto, agrees with.
It’s important for employers to make sure supervisors are aware, she said.
Often a manager or supervisor is able to have a conversation with someone about things going on in the workplace like a job well done on a project or a failure to meet a deadline, but they are not necessarily equipped to talk to workers if they notice a change in behaviour or mental health, she said.
“They’re not so good at saying ‘Hey, I see some of your behaviours change, there’s something going on, there’s something different.’”
For companies it’s a matter of asking themselves how they should train managers and supervisors on awareness and what tools are available to an employee dealing with a mental or physical health issue, she said.
Other measures for reducing presenteeism that seemed to be effective from Ammendolia’s study included tailoring programs to the needs of individual workers and allowing workers to participate in the creation of wellness programs.
When workers are involved in the design process they tend to have more at stake and a better chance at following through because they were part of the design, said Ammendolia.
“So getting them involved in the actual interventions themselves seemed to be useful.”
Although there were common threads discovered in effective intervention programs, a lot of the results the team found were based on one study and there was not much consistency throughout the studies.
In fact, Ammendolia’s team frequently found conflicting studies. For example, with incentives. There’s a lot of debate around whether or not an incentive based program works and Ammendolia said his study wasn’t able to answer that question.
Ammendolia’s team will be taking the information they’ve gathered and using it to build a wellness program for a workplace in the financial industry.
The plan should be complete by the end of this year, but the funding for the study didn’t include money for the next steps.
“We’re hopefully optimistic that once we’ve designed the program that we will find funding to actually implement it and evaluate it,” he said.
Overall, presenteeism is a function of a society that is reactive rather than proactive when it comes to health care.
People aren’t like to do something about their health until there is something wrong, he said.
“Although that’s changing a little bit, it’s still very much a reactive culture.”
In most workplaces people are working more and they have less and less free time.
People are so stressed out that when they are asked to participate in wellness opportunities they opt out because they don’t have time, said Ammendolia.
“It’s not high on the priority list because the stuff on their desks is more priority driven and production is more priority driven.”
Until there is a problem, that is.
“We need to sort of find ways to change that kind of thinking that you have to do things before they happen,” he said.
Seward agrees.
“If I’m not feeling well it’s not OK to ignore not feeling well and keep working because the issue is not going to go away.”
