Feature: Health in The Workplace Alcohol
and the workplace T
The facts
• The estimated cost of alcohol related absences to the UK economy is £7.3bn annually
• Research conducted in 2017 found that one in five employees admitted to having had at least one day off work in the last 12 months due to a hangover and a third to having been to work with a hangover which left them unable to be productive
• Around 14% of those surveyed also stated they drank during working hours.
• In Doncaster alone there are estimated to be in excess of 45,000 working age adults who are drinking at levels that will be harmful to their health.
Callum Dixon (pictured opposite), CEO at Doncaster Alcohol Services, explains how your organisation can avoid contributing to the 17 million working days lost on alcohol each year.
hese statistics paint a pretty concerning picture around the relationship between
alcohol and the workplace. Although employers have a legal duty to protect their employees’ health, safety and welfare, very few are proactively or effectively tackling the misuse of alcohol and other drugs in a way that integrates this area of concern into their wider work on wellbeing. Although anyone can be at risk
of problematic alcohol use there are some workplace environment predictors of increased risk: • Long working hours • Monotonous work • Poor management • Shift work • Physically demanding work • Job insecurity • Pressurised deadlines • High-risk work
So what can you do to make sure your organisation isn’t losing productivity to alcohol misuse and is holistically supporting your biggest asset, your people?
Identify One question I often get asked by businesses is how to spot those people who might be misusing alcohol or other drugs. The answer can be fairly simple;
are they behaving differently? Are they having unexplained or frequent absences, dips in productivity, performance or conduct issues? Of course, these are also warning
signs for other wellbeing concerns like stress, anxiety or additional responsibilities or challenges in their private life like new caring responsibilities or a relationship breakdown. Sometimes, however, there
might not be any warning signs. In this instance having a work environment where people feel they can raise health and wellbeing issues with their managers, how organisations talk about alcohol and other drugs and how they handle concerns with their staff is the most important factor.
Discuss When approaching any concern with a member of your team it’s important to be conscious about how you frame the issues. This is especially important with alcohol misuse due to the associated stigma and shame. Approaching the issue from a disciplinary perspective is likely to increase the stress on that individual and potential risk the misuse becoming more severe.
‘The most
important tip is to learn from
problems you do encounter’
74 CHAMBERconnect Autumn 2019
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