BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
COURSE DESIGN AND CURRICULA
In financial terms, individuals with mental health concerns are likely to have higher insurance costs and lower income. At the organisational level, we lose productivity, effectiveness and performance. At the societal level, meanwhile, health problems lead to a reduction of economic productivity and GDP. The cost of stress-induced illnesses Work-related stress was found to be a major concern for close to 80 per cent of organisations in the EU, according to 2015 figures from the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, yet fewer than 30 per cent already had procedures in place for dealing with workplace stress. To illustrate the severity of stress-related illnesses at work in greater detail, we can consider the estimated financial impact across individual countries and Europe as a whole. Take Denmark, for example, where the annual cost of sick leave caused by the pressures of work has been calculated at between DKK 1.4 and 1.5 billion (approximately €200 million). In France, in the year 2000, workplace stress was estimated to cost between €1.17 and €1.97 billion a year, while the cost of depression due to high work demands was estimated at between €650 and €752 million. Seven years later, the estimated total cost of the pressures of work in France was set at between €1.9 and €3 billion. In the Netherlands, the total cost of employee absence in 2005 was estimated to be worth €1.3 billion, of which 40 per cent was attributable to psychosocial health issues. In Spain, a 2002 article written by José Ignacio Pastrana Jiménez estimated that workplace bullying alone was costing the economy €52 million per year. In Switzerland, researchers calculated the cost of work-related stress to be approximately CHF 4.2 billion (approximately €4.2 billion) annually in 2003 and the equivalent of 1.2 per cent of the country’s GDP. Meanwhile, in the UK, the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health estimated that the cost of sickness absence due to stress, anxiety and depression amounted to approximately £1.26 billion a year. More recently, Labour Force Survey suggested that the total number of cases relating to work-related stress, depression or anxiety accounted for 39 per cent of all cases of work‑related illnesses. A recent study conducted by Matrix estimated that the total cost of work-related depression across the EU’s member countries was almost €620 billion per
TODAY’S WORKPLACE RISKS
It is important to understand the types of psychosocial risks that are present in today’s workplaces and that can cause acute or chronic mental health problems. Here are some examples:
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Excessive workload and/or work pace
Time pressures
Harmful workplace interactions or behaviours, such as gossip, harassment or bullying
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Absenteeism or presenteeism
Job uncertainty and/or unclear role in an organisation
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Inflexible work schedules
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Irregular, unpredictable or unsocial work hours Poor interpersonal relationships, poor communication and/or lack of participation
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Poor career development
Conflicting demands of work and home
employees translate largely into indirect costs. There may be some direct costs that can be divided into medical and non‑medical costs in relation to treatment, medications and therapy, for example. However, it is crucial to point out that the indirect costs described above will always account for a larger sum of money than the direct costs. When the psychosocial risks that are present in today’s workplaces (see boxout) cause mental health problems, they often result in poor performance or in employees taking sick leave from work. However, they can also influence our personal lives and the people close to us. As the aforementioned European Risk Observatory report observes: “There is evidence that workplace stress is related to a decline in the quality of relationships with spouses, children and other family members.” It is clear, therefore, that psychosocial risks and their associated effects on health affect organisations and societies, as well as individuals.
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