Approximately half of all companies surveyed in the U.S. and Western Europe do not have a strategy in place for mitigating the effect of the seasonal flu on their businesses, according to The Economist Intelligence Unit's report, “Strategies for Seasonal Influenza: Spreading Prevention Across the Workforce.”
Planning for and combatting influenza in the workplace is important for businesses, especially if they seek to minimize the economic costs of the illness. In general, companies are trying to maintain a healthier workforce to reduce health insurance costs and lost productivity due to absent employees as a result of illness.
Seasonal influenza is estimated to cost the U.S. economy $87 billion each year in lost productivity. The main cost is increased absenteeism: approximately half of the surveyed companies described the risk as minimal, while more than a third (34 percent) rated it as a moderate loss.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
