Living with chronic illnesses such as migraine, diabetes, fibromyalgia, cancer, mental illnesses, immune conditions and many more can be a challenging and isolating experience.
These life-long, often slow-progressing conditions are physically and emotionally exhausting as they involve incessant management of symptoms, treatments and physician visits, leaving a pronounced effect on quality of life and workplace productivity.
Furthermore, chronically ill employees may frequently incur massive energy debt trying to keep up with life expectations while navigating the agonizing demands of ongoing healthcare, adapting to physical limitations, and managing emotional stress that requires significant vigor severely limiting how much they can get done.
Since many of these conditions are not overtly visible and fought silently, not everyone may fully comprehend their true impact on individuals’ lives as a result employees with chronic illnesses may not be clearly understood, stigmatized or even workmates doubt their sickness.
While individuals living with chronic illnesses suffer the most, these conditions tax businesses too big time beyond the direct healthcare costs of treating employees.
Luckily, this is not a fate written in the stars as chronic illnesses are more manageable and preventable than ever. As such, businesses have a bigger role to play in helping employees manage these conditions proactively in order to improve their health and impact productivity.
The Burden of Chronic Illness for Businesses
The ramifications of chronic conditions on businesses are far-reaching and can add up quickly in cases of multimorbidity (employees having two or more chronic diseases).
It is hard to imagine that chronic illnesses account for about 60% of all absences from work. Employees with chronic illness require more time for physician visits, treatment and recovery, sabotaging them from staying on top of professional responsibilities while escalating the adverse impact of absenteeism on the organization.
An unforgiving work environment that places a huge premium on results while neglecting employee well-being may force employees with chronic illnesses to work under the weather and push their bodies past the breaking point. But this is counterproductive as it makes it harder for employees to manage their conditions and work optimally at the same time reducing productivity and lowering the quality of work, further impacting the business bottom line.
Besides, unmanaged chronic diseases are the major driver of employer-sponsored health insurance premiums and medical claims, taxing businesses more in healthcare expenses. Employees with chronic illness usually incur 3 – 4 times more healthcare services than their healthy co-workers and given health insurance premiums are largely pegged on the previous claims, an illness that affects one or a handful of employees will determine what organization pays for the entire team.
Ways Businesses Can Support Employees with Chronic Illnesses
Chronic illness poses a practical challenge to businesses, but it’s a real opportunity for organizations to demonstrate their care for employees by providing vital resources to thwart chronic illness in the workplace, help employees with chronic conditions to cope and enhance overall workplace wellness. Here are ways the business can help;
- Encourage healthy behaviors to prevent illnesses.
With many chronic disease risk factors i.e. smoking, heavy drinking, obesity, poor diet, physical inactivity etc. avoidable, businesses can implement robust wellness programs that foster early intervention and prevention to help employees stave off chronic illnesses and maintain optimal health.
Business can rely on wellness and lifestyle management programs such as health screenings, risk assessments, physical activity, healthy eating and stress management, to proactively promote healthy behaviors in the workplace, provide resources employees requires to prevent the onset of chronic illnesses and reduce the financial burden of managing chronic conditions.
- Halt the disease from progressing further
Well-controlled chronic conditions can reduce employees’ medical leave and improve their quality of life. Therefore, for employees who already have chronic illnesses, businesses can offer an integrated care approach or disease management programs and resources that combine targeted medical intervention, lifestyle changes, and self-care strategies to empower employees to regain a sense of control over their health.
This integrated care approach which may encompass screenings, check-ups, monitoring and coordinating treatment, disease-specific programs and patient education enables employees to receive appropriate medical care timely.
This also helps employees prevent the progression of diseases and manage their conditions effectively, cultivate more self-command over their health and reduce the impact on productivity, absenteeism, and healthcare costs.
- Foster a supportive work environment
The physical, organizational, and psychosocial aspects of work such as poor workplace ergonomics, long work hours, and grueling job environments gravely affect employee health.
Therefore it’s important for businesses to pay greater attention to their work-life policies and practices partly due to shifting workforce demographics and growing competition for the workforce to adapt the workplace and provide the right environment that permits employees with long-term illnesses to work optimally and sustain employment as a way of gaining a competitive advantage.
To eliminate any job-related barriers that could hinder the productivity of employees with health issues, it’s necessary for businesses to provide reasonable workplace concessions and adjustments such as flexible work hours, modified workstations, and telecommuting to enable employees remain engaged in their work and reduce the impact of their health conditions on overall business performance.
- Improve access to Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs)
The diagnosis of chronic illness usually saddles people with immense emotional anguish whose impact manifests itself strongly if the disease becomes more acute or worsens over time as a result wrecking their emotional well-being.
When these diseases undesirably arrive, people are usually left worried about how their life will be, whether they will be able to carry on their daily routines and impact on their ability to contribute to their family’s welfare or even feel embarrassed about the illness.
Therefore facilitating access to EAPs offers employees the opportunity to talk to someone confidentially about the overwhelming burden of their condition at their discretion. This helps them feel heard, supported and more comfortable seeking help and addressing issues before they take a toll on their professional and personal lives.
Through these programs whether counseling, coaching or peer support, employees are able to manage their conditions effectively and enhance their overall well-being, leading to improved productivity and reduced costs associated with absenteeism and presenteeism.
- Alleviate the financial strain of accessing care
Managing chronic illnesses can be costly and difficult but it’s reassuring and comforting for employees to know that an employer will help them meet medical care should the need arise.
It is therefore important to help employees offset the financial burden of managing chronic illness by providing health insurance benefits that guarantee access to necessary medications, treatments, specialist visits, and other healthcare services that employees with chronic illnesses may require.
Likewise, businesses should also review and optimize their health insurance benefits to provide not just adequate coverage for managing chronic illness but also other helpful resources such as preventive care and wellness benefit to the workforce with chronic illness in order to better manage their condition and reduce the financial burden on both the employees and the business.
From Sickness to Success
Living with a chronic illness can be daunting, but it is possible to manage symptoms and live a fulfilling life with the right support and resources. By reaching out with help and making positive changes, people with chronic illnesses can find support to manage their conditions effectively and achieve success both at work and at home.
