Reducing Sick Time

(Image from Free Digital Photos)

Smart bosses no longer think in terms of keeping workers on-site unless it’s truly essential. Some jobs really can’t be done from home. But where jobs can be done remotely, smart bosses have replaced the desire to reduce absences with the desire to reduce illness or injury.

For that matter, smart bosses who do need workers on-site are thinking similarly. People can only keep working when they are well enough to work.

There are far more tools for that than most of the media mentions.

We’ve looked before at protective measures in the workplace. High quality face masks are immensely helpful, but certainly not all we can do. We can ventilate. We can install HEPA filters and upper-level UV germ-killing units. We can use CO2 monitors to tell us whether we’re turning over the air in a room often enough.

But what else are we missing? Are there tools we could apply that help all the workforce, both those who are on-site and those who work from home? After all, people who work from home can get exposed to illnesses by someone they live with. Children bringing an infection home from school are an obvious vector, but so are partners who work in an environment that exposes them. So are visits with extended family and friends, and leisure activities around other people.

We aren’t thinking purely about the pandemic now. We’re also thinking about influenza, common colds, chickenpox… everything infectious.

As it turns out, we can do something about some of that.

Reducing Sickness in the Workforce

Although I don’t have employees myself at the moment, the last time I did, I got vouchers so they could all get flu vaccinations at a pharmacy chain. I’ve already booked mine for this coming autumn.

What are some other vaccinations I might offer to keep my staff well?

Pneumonia. The vaccine only protects against some types, not all. It isn’t perfect at prevention, but for the types of pneumonia it targets, at the least it helps the immune system with the fight. It’s inexpensive and each jab lasts several years.

If any of my employees have somehow reached adulthood without catching chickenpox and without getting vaccinated against it, I could offer that to those employees. Chickenpox is more dangerous when caught in adulthood.

For those who did have chickenpox earlier in life, shingles results from a flare-up of the virus and can happen more than once, anytime the immune system is weakened or too busy doing something else instead of suppressing the virus left by chickenpox. It’s painful, can carry on for a long time, and can sometimes cause serious harm. Doctors say they are seeing more of it in the past couple of years. Vaccinating against it is not cheap, but it’s on my list to consider.

Some vaccinations need to be boosted every few years, such as tetanus.

Beyond Vaccinations

I could also organize a health fair for the business, or band together with small businesses nearby to offer one for a handful of businesses. Health fairs bring screening tests to groups of people instead of requiring each person to make special arrangements. The tests are typically inexpensive and not especially sophisticated, but can provide early notice of health issues so they can be addressed before they become big problems.

Screening tests help people nip problems in the bud. Prevention is not only more effective than waiting, it also spares people from the discomfort (or worse) of letting an issue become full-blown trouble before anything is done about it.

Borrowed Ideas

These ideas are not originally mine. Even some of my most tight-fisted clients have brought in health fairs. I’ve gotten routine blood tests, cholesterol checks, blood pressure checks, and even osteoporosis screening at those health fairs.

Vaccinations aren’t my idea either. Even though I was a contractor, not an employee, many years ago Du Pont sent me to their medical team before sending me abroad to work at their factories. The medical team drew a vial of blood and ran tests to see whether any of my vaccinations needed a booster. They found protection from my childhood vaccination against measles was fading, so they gave me a booster.

Most of my travel was to Europe, which didn’t require many vaccinations. A little of my travel was to a developing country. Tetanus, typhoid, yellow fever, hepatitis… They didn’t leave anything to chance if they could do something about it. (Du Pont also had a highly effective safety program. Their attention to health was an offshoot of their focus on safety.)

Such a proactive approach to workforce health is good all around. Nobody likes being sick, and companies like having all their workers able to concentrate on what they’re doing.

It isn’t entirely about the pandemic. It never was. Keep your people humming along and they can keep your business humming along.