The mental and physical health of employees can affect productivity in the workplace

Mental and physical health are the most important factors for workplace productivity, reports an open access article released in June. Journal of Occupational Medicine and the Environment.

Martin Stepanek, MA, Charles University, Prague, and his colleagues present a "systematic and simultaneous" badysis of the many factors that affect workplace productivity. "Our study shows that the network of influences affecting employee productivity is more complex" than what was previously reported, the researchers write.

The study used a comprehensive data set of nearly 32,000 British employees, taken from the 2017 British Healthiest Workplace survey. With the help of a technique called structural equation modeling, researchers badyzed the combined effects of a wide range of determinants of lost productivity: not only absenteeism, but also reduced productivity at work (presenteeism).

Four main determinants of employee productivity have been identified: mental health, physical health, employment characteristics, and organizational support. Mental health was the most important factor, followed by physical health. Together, physical and mental health contributed to 93% of the indirect effects on productivity identified in the model.

"Some influences lose most of their explanatory power in more complex models with additional explanatory variables," the researchers write. For example, while engagement at work was a strong predictor of productivity in individual models, it became negligible in models including health, job and workplace characteristics.

A more personalized strategy is needed to improve employee well-being as well as the overall culture of organization, work and management. "

Mr. Stepanek and his co-authors

Researchers need strategies that go beyond the symptoms of poor physical and mental health, the researchers added: "It is equally important, if not more important, to tackle the source of such satisfaction problems in a healthy work environment. "