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Obesity:
a business issue

It costs the economy more than £2.6 billion a year, yet ironically many businesses are compounding the problem. We find out how a new approach to obesity can get staff, and your organisation, into shape

If you’ve always thought weight was a private issue, between an individual and their scales, it is time to think again. Obesity is an invisible enemy to business whose costs – in terms of productivity and turnover – are only now being fully understood.

According to the Department of Health, obesity costs the UK economy some £2.6 billion a year1. And it is not just the public purse that is feeling the strain. Twentyfour percent of men and 25 percent of women in England are now classified as obese2, with a predicted rise to 41 percent of men and 36 percent of women by 2023. For employers, this means an unhappy, unhealthy workforce, vulnerable to chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. What used to be a personal matter is now an alarmingly public one.

“Obesity should be a concern for every employer,” says dietitian Paul McArdle, who runs the nutrition clinic at Solihull Bupa centre. “Last year, a report by Oxford University found that moderate obesity reduces life expectancy by three years, while severe obesity can shorten life by ten years4. If you’re obese, you have a high risk of developing long-term health problems such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease.”

This is bad news for big businesses; even worse for small. But companies aren’t just footing the cost of time off work for the treatment of these conditions. They’re also paying for the effect obesity can have on staff not working to their full potential. And ironically, it’s often the most committed, valued employees who run the most risk.

High flyers at risk
“People who are incredibly focused or work long hours are the ones who are most in danger,” says McArdle. “They probably don’t take proper lunch breaks, and find it hard to make time for exercise. Employers need to discourage a culture of working lunches: employees often think they will be marked down for stepping away from their desks for half an hour. This is especially the case in small companies, where, often, every minute matters.

“One reason a quarter of us are obese is that very few jobs are physically active enough,” McArdle continues.“There are simple things companies can do though. If you have vending machines in the office, stock them with at least 50 percent healthy snacks. Try putting apples at eye level. People often tell me they are happy to choose healthy options if they are there. You could also start an after-work running club, or encourage staff to raise money for charity by doing a sponsored 5K walk.”

The health, wellbeing and weight of employees is, clearly, a sensitive issue for managers to manage, although there are easy incentives, such as the Cycle to Work scheme, the government’s tax-free bikes initiative, which is available to companies with as few as two employees. What’s more, costs for health promotion campaigns and subsidised healthy canteen meals come under intense scrutiny and pressure during a recession. Still, says McArdle, “Tackling obesity issues must be seen as a smart investment, not simply a cost.”

Investing in health
In the US, where the cost of obesity is a huge issue, Microsoft launched a weight-loss programme for its obese staff in 2002 that led to 794 people shedding a total of 25,891 pounds in a year. The programme was available to employees and their spouses with a BMI of 30 or more, and involved medical supervision, nutrition and behavioural counselling and a supervised exercise programme. Although it wasn’t cheap (Microsoft pays 80 percent of the cost up to $6,000 over a lifetime), the results – reduced healthcare costs and less time off for staff – were enough for the company to roll out the programme to more than 1,500 people by 2005.

Employers on this side of the Atlantic are increasingly getting the message, too, with managers turning to interactive, personalised tools such as Fitbug and Bupa Positive Health.

More than 500 UK employees of pharmaceutical, biotech and medical devices company Quintiles are now registered with Bupa Positive Health, an online resource offered free to staff with Bupa health insurance and, in Quintiles’ case, accessed via the company’s intranet.

The programme allows employees to complete a confidential health assessment focusing on four key areas that can affect wellbeing: stress, sleep, nutrition and fitness. They then receive a report based on their results, offering advice to improve areas of concern.

“We encourage them to use it every six months so they can monitor their progress and see that any lifestyle changes they have made are making an impact,” explains Jacqui Riches, Senior Wellness Specialist at Quintiles.

Feel-good factor
Being able to show return on investment to senior managers is one of the challenges with health programmes, given that the results can be quite intangible. But the Bupa Positive Health programme at Quintiles showed improved ‘feel-good factor’ in the firm’s annual employee survey, says Riches.

“They were asked to score how highly Quintiles values their health and wellbeing. I was interested to see how the launch of the new Bupa Positive Health programme affected these results. Across all our sites and levels of staff, ratings were much higher than the previous year: tangible evidence of a positive impact on employees.”

Dietitian McArdle sums it up. “It’s not a case of, ‘Can my company afford to do this?’ It’s a question of ‘Can I afford not to?’”

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