Why is Occupational Health needed?For many reasons but mostly-business, legal, moral.
Business reasons The Health of employees impacts on business performance and delivery. Imagine employing a team of 5 and 1 employee has several weeks sickness absence. that is likely to have a significant impact on the business. Productivity is likely to be reduced significantly, other staff may need to cover the role or work extra hours which means they are likely to be working less effectively as they may not know the role as well and they may not be well rested between shifts and therefore may be subject to stress. Legal reasons The management regulations state that, amongst other things employers must identify and manage risk and provide information, instruction and training to employees on health risks. It identifies a need for health surveillance. There is a vast amount of health and safety law such as regulations covering those working with computers at work, employment law, legislation to protect people with long term medical conditions- the Disability Discrimination Act , and a range of legislation in the field of Human Resources e.g. Dispute Resolution Regulations.There has been a significant increase in civil clams for compensation for work-related ill health- both physical and psychological ill health Moral reasons There are benefits from being a responsible employer and looking after the health and wellbeing of employees-recruitment and retention benefits. If employees feel valued and cared for, they are likely to remain with their employer and the converse is true. Indeed, recent studies show that enjoying the role and feeling cared for is more important to employees than a higher salary. A caring employer receives recognition in the business world and press, the local community and customers.Work should not make people ill, it should enhance their health |
Evidence shows that employees are likely to have worse health if:
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