Direct Healthcare costs 

• Risk Factors:
• Health care costs are 2x - 3x greater for an employee with 3 or more risk factors (i.e. sedentary lifestyle, smoker, overweight and drink too much) than those with no such risk factors.
• The more risk factors someone has, the greater the cost to an employer they are (Shain & Suurvail, 2001). 
• Absenteeism:
• Employees with weak employment relations miss an average of 5.9 days due to illness compared to 3.7 days per year for those with strong relationships (Lowe & Schellenbert, 2001).
• The cost of absenteeism due to staff experiencing role overload is estimated to be $3.1 billion/year (Duxbury & Higgins, 2003).
• The estimated cost of absenteeism due to staff experiencing family to work interference is approximately $450 million/year (Duxbury & Higgins, 2003).
• 70% of disability is related to behavioural factors - your employee’s lifestyle choices affect the health costs you incur.
• $30 billion (CDN) is lost annually due to mental health and addiction issues.
• Long Term Disability (LTD) costs are on the rise: Watson Wyatt (2005) reports a 27% increase in LTD since 2003. This is partly due to an aging workforce, increasing demands on employees, and mental health claims.
• Stress:
• Health care expenditures are approximately 50% higher for those employees reporting higher stress levels (Burton, 2004).
• 50% of Canadians have high levels of stress, caused by an unhealthy work environment where job demands exceed control; excessive workloads are the norm; decision making is top down; and managerial support for work-life balance is lacking.

Indirect Healthcare & Staffing Costs

• Aging Workforce:
• Canada's workforce is aging. Older workers (55-64) average twice as many sick days as their younger counterparts.
• Benefit costs and absenteeism will likely escalate if older workers do not improve their health.
• Shortage of Skilled employees:
• If economic growth continues at the current rate of 3% and productivity rises at 1.75%, Canada could face a shortage of 1.2 million workers by the year 2020 (Watson-Wyatt, 2005)
• Retention and turnover costs:
• The cost of turnover adds hundreds of thousands of dollars to a company's expenses. While it is difficult to fully calculate the cost of turnover (including hiring costs, training costs, and productivity loss), industry experts often quote 25% of the average employee salary as a conservative estimate. (Nobscot, 2005)