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Health, wellbeing and productivity in the workplace

A Britain's Healthiest Company summary report

by Marco Hafner, Christian Van Stolk, Catherine L. Saunders, Joachim Krapels, Ben Baruch

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This report aims to draw upon data collected during the 2014 Britain's Healthiest Company (BHC) competition in order to understand what drives productivity at work in the participating organisations and, in particular, to examine the relation between the health and wellbeing of staff and their resultant productivity. To understand this relationship, we look at the links between lost productivity in terms of presenteeism (being in suboptimal health at work) and absenteeism in association with a range of factors. These include:

  • Job and work environment (e.g. stress and health-promotion interventions in the workplace)
  • Personal (e.g. lifestyle risk-factors related to obesity, smoking and alcohol consumption)
  • Health and physical risks (chronic conditions and mental health).

Using regression modelling techniques we establish associations between these factors and productivity loss in the workplace and compare our results to the wider literature.

The report is aimed at policymakers and practitioners and aims to contribute to the wider debate on the link between health, wellbeing and productivity at work.

Table of Contents

  • Chapter One

    Background

  • Chapter Two

    Britain's Healthiest Company survey and how it compares to other UK data sources

  • Chapter Three

    How we measure workplace productivity and its determinants

  • Chapter Four

    The determinants of workplace productivity loss: empirical findings

  • Chapter Five

    Discussion

Research conducted by

The research described in this report was prepared for VitalityHealth and conducted by RAND Europe.

This report is part of the RAND Corporation Research report series. RAND reports present research findings and objective analysis that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors. All RAND reports undergo rigorous peer review to ensure high standards for research quality and objectivity.

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