BBC NEWS | UK | Stress costing British firms £1.24bn
British industry is haemorrhaging a "massive" £1.24 billion a year because of stress-related sickness and lost productivity, according to a survey of managers.
A report in Personnel Today magazine concludes that the UK's productivity performance is "atrocious", with output per-hours-worked a fifth lower than in Germany and France, and well below the European average
If you go read this article in full it is a damning indictment of the state of British mangement and the way workplaces are run. The suggestions on how to improve things - set clear objectives and invest in training seem ludicrously simple but the fact that they have to be mentioned shows just how poor as a country we are in leading and looking after people. As I have said before, paraphrasing others, people are a business' greatest asset and yet we do not invest or seek to base working relationships on mutual value and trust. A phrase from the article says,
About 50% of the employers said they believed that half the days lost to stress were not genuine.
Personally I would suggest that the survey under estimates the days lost to stress. Employers obviously don't trust their people to tell them the truth.
The fact that in the rest of Europe less hours are worked and yet productivity is higher has to tell firms something!
Try investing in people and trust them. Its not the whole answer but its a starting point for development out of this mess.
Posted by Paul Goodison at October 20, 2003 10:49 PM | TrackBack