Does poor physical health actually lower productivity?

There’s been a huge shift of focus in the HR world towards consideration of employee health. However, does poor physical health actually lower worker productivity?

In an interview with Entreprenuer, Brian Hazelgren, Author of Healthy Habits of Highly Productive Employees: Thriving in Health, Wealth and Self, argues that yes, it does. In fact, poor health has a ripple effect on the whole organisation.

For example, if an employee is unhealthy and takes time off or pays to visit a doctor, it affects the pricing of products a company sells in order to retain staff and manage absence.

Hazelgren argues that health, wealth and self need to match up and it’s all about finding balance. And whilst financial wealth is not the answer to good health, it does have an impact. The stress that not having financial security has is a huge cost on wellbeing.