Job-related ill health is costing UK businesses up to £41 billion a year, with 1.77 million workers suffering due to poor job quality according to new research .
Businesses lose an estimated 50 working days per employee annually and 9.5 million people economically inactive. The study highlights how improving job design could enhance worker health, boost productivity, and reduce strain on the public purse.
Conducted by ReWAGE – an independent expert advisory group hosted by Warwick and Leeds Universities with funding from Deloitte – the study examines workplace factors affecting employee health and calls for greater attention to job quality to help public health and economic performance.
It highlights how job insecurity, low pay, long hours, high job strain and workplace bullying contributes to poor health outcomes for employees. Conversely, job security, fair pay, autonomy, social support and a healthy work-life balance are linked to better well-being.
Current approaches to workplace health tend to be reactive, addressing worker ill health after it arises. The report suggests that a shift toward preventative measures – by improving job design – could support worker wellbeing and reduce associated costs.
“If the UK Government wants to reduce the public spend on health and welfare it needs to think seriously about preventive actions to address ill-health created by work,” says Professor Chris Warhurst of Warwick Institute for Employment Research. “If we want to reduce health and welfare costs, we need to improve job quality. The evidence suggests that good jobs provide good health.”
With the UK Government aiming to lower healthcare and welfare costs, the research calls for businesses and policymakers to consider job quality as a key factor in public health strategies. This approach could include widening job-related health risks in workplace risk assessments and establishing minimum standards for job quality.
The report also emphasises the need for improved data collection to better understand job-related health impacts, proposing that the ONS incorporate a job quality module into the Labour Force Survey. This would provide more comprehensive insights for policymakers.
