Overall Well-Being as a Predictor of Health Care, Productivity, and Retention Outcomes in a Large Employer

Abstract

Employers struggle with the high cost of health care, lost productivity, and turnover in their workforce. The present study aims to understand the association between overall well-being and these employer outcomes. In a sample of 11,700 employees who took the Well-being Assessment, the authors used multivariate linear and logistic regression to investigate overall well-being as a predictor of health care outcomes (total health care expenditure, emergency room visits, hospitalizations), productivity outcomes (unscheduled absence, short-term disability leave, presenteeism, job performance ratings), and retention outcomes (intention to stay, voluntary turnover, involuntary turnover). Testing this hypothesis both cross-sectionally and longitudinally, the authors investigated the association between baseline well-being and these outcomes in the following year, and the relationship between change in overall well-being and change in these outcomes over 1 year. The results demonstrated that baseline overall well-being was a significant predictor of all outcomes in the following year when holding baseline employee characteristics constant. Change in overall well-being over 1 year also was significantly associated with the change in employer outcomes, with the exception that the relationship to change in manager-rated job performance was marginally significant. The relationships between overall wellbeing and outcomes suggest that implementing a well-being improvement solution could have a significant bottom and top line impact on business performance. (Population Health Management 2013;16:397-405)

Workplace Well-Being: The Role of Job Crafting and Autonomy Support

“…A meta-analysis of 7939 business units across 36 companies found significant associations between employee satisfaction and engagement and business-unit outcomes, including productivity and profit (Harter et al 2002). More recently, Sears et al (2013) examined the relationship between the physical and mental well-being of 11,700 employees and outcomes such as job performance ratings, presenteeism, and intention to stay, both cross-sectionally and prospectively over a year. Well-being significantly predicted all employee outcomes, even one year later.…”

Exploring demands from the perspective of employees identified as being at risk of burnout

“…Overall, employee well-being (life evaluation, emotional health, physical health, healthy behaviour, work environment, and basic access) has been found to predict future employer outcomes related to health, productivity, and retention (Sears, Shi, Coberley, & Pope, 2013). It could be argued that this should make the well-being of employees a critical focus area for organizations, yet this is seldom the case.…”

Work and well-being

“…The costs associated with low levels of well-being exceeded several billions of dollars. Reviews by others (e.g., Cotton and Hart, 2003) as well as empirical data (Sears et al, 2013) have documented the association of low overall well-being with increased healthcare costs, lower levels of productivity and higher turnover rates. A US study (Sacks et al, 2015) estimated that excessive alcohol consumption cost the US economy $239 billion in 2010, the biggest cost (72 percent) in reduced workplace productivity.…”