Over the years, people are becoming more interested about their health, since advances in technology and development in health fields have had an impact on how people perceive their health and gave it more importance. Occupational health, which focuses on the health in the workplace have as well reached the sights of people, specially workers and employers. The growing interest in this particular field can be explained as of the impact of occupational health on the socioeconomic status. Since their aim is economic benefit, employers are interested in the benefits of occupational health, and if its application is worth the resources invested in it. As a result of this growing interest, economics of occupational health has become a key area of research.
Occupational health not only improve the health and well-being of the workforce, but it affects the whole business’s economics. A survey on 500 organizations has shown that 73% of employers believe that occupational health interventions benefit their business as a whole, and 63% reported money saving over time. Furthermore, studies published by the journal of occupational environmental medicine in 2018 shows that occupational interventions yield to minimizing work-related diseases and injuries, and as a result, an increase in the productivity of employees is remarked, thus the productivity of the whole organization. In addition, healthy employees not only work better, but work more as well. Investing in the employee’s health can minimize sick leaves and thus increase working hours of employees. Moreover, occupational ill-health can have a high cost to the organization, and to the business and market. A reportage in 2019 concluded that work related ill-health and injuries costs the European Union 476 billion euros per year! By reducing occupational danger, occupational health can reduce this cost, and save money. Additionally, work related injuries do not only productivity of the organization, it also reduce working hours, and cost the company additional money to pay the health care of the worker.
Employers should invest on occupational health for the benefit of the organization. Occupational health is important for the employee’s health and for the economy of the business. It increase productivity, reduce work related diseases and injuries, reduce sick leaves, and save money to the organization. It can be an economic advantage to the company.
https://oce-ovid-com.ezsecureaccess.balamand.edu.lb/article/00043764-201802000-00006/HTML
https://www-jstor-org.ezsecureaccess.balamand.edu.lb/stable/26567030?pq-origsite=summon&seq=1
https://www-jstor-org.ezsecureaccess.balamand.edu.lb/stable/40967859?pq-origsite=summon&seq=9
https://www-jstor-org.ezsecureaccess.balamand.edu.lb/stable/40967640?pq-origsite=summon&seq=1