CHB 2.5: How is Corporate Performance affected?
Corporate performance is a complex framework impacted by many factors. One factor that contributes to a large extent is collective employee performance, which is, as mentioned above, largely dependent on individual employee health. As reported in several studies (Moretti et al., 2020), COVID-19 confinements and their consequences (remote working, less than adequate work-set up, physical inactivity, etc.) were shown to impact job satisfaction, productivity, happiness in the short-term. If employees are less satisfied, unhappy and less productive, their collective performance will be impacted and hence overall corporate performance will follow a negative trend. Further, the feeling of a lack of support with regards to their needs may lead to dissatisfaction and unhappiness at work. Supporting employees’ health, many companies have been offering contributions to gym-memberships. However, these support schemes are in desperate need to be adjusted to current conditions of remote working as a result of COVID-19 confinements, particularly as these conditions will persist for an unforeseeable time. Adhering to social distancing measures that only allow a limited amount of people in closed rooms depending on their sizes, most gyms and fitness locations operate with a time-slot reserving system. However, since the working hours of a majority of employees are from nine to five, it becomes increasingly difficult to secure a spot in those ‘peak’ hours at most fitness locations. Thereafter, to support their employees and enable them with opportunities to stay healthy, companies will have to consider innovative solutions for corporate health management, further preventing a decline in employee performance. In fact, as shown in a meta-analysis form Harvard University, companies investing in health and wellness schemes have been experiencing a promising return of investment (Baicker et al., 2010) which will be further discussed in section 5.
Additionally, if an employee is dissatisfied and does not feel understood/supported, they may consider changing jobs to corporate environments that offer a healthier support system, i.e. more employee benefits that potentially outweigh differences in wages. Inherently, this will result in more costs and effort for companies to find adequate replacement through recruiting processes. From an employee perspective, this seems logical: if a company pays well, but seriously damages one’s health without providing proper support (e.g. corporate health management), the money earned will have to be spent privately on health professionals. However, if another company pays less salary, but therefore seriously invests in support packages such as an effective health management package, employees will have to spend less of their own money in these areas while feeling better at the same time.
In the long-term, the impact of remote working and COVID-19 confinements could lead to even more devastating consequences for both employee and companies. As mentioned in the last paragraph and discussed in several studies (Kakar & Lomond, 2020; Kirwan et al., 2020; Woods et al., 2020), the occurrence of these short-term effects drastically increases the likelihood of long-term conditions to develop that could lead to serious illnesses and absences from work. In fact, illnesses and absences already represent a large burden for the economy as data from Beroepsziekten (2020) and Volksgezongheidenzorg (2020) reveals. As such, these institutions have assessed the number and costs of work related illnesses, as well as prevalence in relation to age and duration and causes for absence. For the scope of this article, data with regards to MSKd will be further discussed.
