Sometimes it can be hard to get the balance right between taking steps to improve your businesses’ sustainability and improving the productivity of your people. Energy use, for example, is a fine balancing act between providing your people with enough heat and light to work effectively and making savings that cut your carbon footprint.
But a greener office can – and often is – a more productive office.
Given that staff costs, including salaries and benefits, typically account for about 90% of a business’ operating costs, improving the productivity of your workforce unquestionably improves the productivity of your business.
So what steps can and should you take to improve productivity and reduce the footprint of your business?
Firstly, you should consider the cost the ill health of your employees has on your business. Whist this varies from country to country and sector to sector, here are a few exemplars:
- The annual absenteeism rate in the US is 3% per employee in the private sector, and 4% in the public sector, costing employers $2,074 and $2,502 per employee per year respectively.
- Poor mental health specifically costs UK employers £30 billion a year through lost production, recruitment and absence.
- The aggregate cost to business of ill-health and absenteeism in Australia is estimated at $7 billion per year, while the cost of ‘presenteeism’ (not fully functioning at work because of medical conditions) is estimated to be A$26 billion.
The health of your employees, evidently, can have a huge impact on the health of your business.
Putting your employees first means you are putting your business first.
There are a number of proven methods to improve employee health which also improve the health of the planet. Jump recognises this link and rewards your people for changing their behaviour – making them more likely to stick with this change.
Cycling, one of Jump’s 8 core behaviour modules, is a great example. By encouraging your employees to cycle rather than drive to work not only will you cut the travel footprint of your business, but your employees will enjoy both the physical and mental benefits that exercise bring. From one small change you can effect both a cut in carbon and an increase in productivity.
By rewarding people for taking these actions, they are more likely to take them again and again, meaning Jump with have a continued effect, rather than being a single impact scheme.
There are seven other modules which form the core of Jump – but we don’t stop there. If there’s a particular behaviour you’d like to encourage, such as increased use of public transport, we can create a module for you.
If you’d like to start a discussion on how Jump could work for your organisation, or to book a demonstration of our platform, then please do get in touch with us at [email protected].
