Smoking is Injurious to Business
The London School of Economics has devised a formula that can be used to calculate the total costs to businesses resulting from smoking employees. This includes the loss due to smoking induced health issues and subsequent absences from work, as well as the time wasted in taking smoking breaks. Workplace fires attributed to smoking also contribute to the total value arrived at by the formula.
The report has put the national figure for smoking related losses at a whopping £2.1bn per annum. Absence costs are estimated to be around £1.1bn whereas losses from smoking breaks are no less than £1bn per year.
The report, which was published on behalf of NHS Smokefree, does not include the costs incurred from the dent to company image due to the smoking habit of employees. Moreover, the dissatisfaction felt by the non-smoking employees who may have a problem with their smoker colleagues taking breaks regularly has not been covered in the formula.
The formula that is now being suggested by LSE will prove to be a useful tool in analyzing the gross decrease in profits due to smoking, and the changes that can be introduced to avoid this unnecessary loss of income, believes Professor Alistair McGuire, Head of Social Policy at LSE and the chief researcher for the report.
Following the report, many experts have been stressing on the need for employers to strengthen ’stop-smoking’ campaigns and support systems in the workplace. Proper training and availability of a qualified advisor, who can work with the employees one-on-one or in a group is essential, feels Dr Linda Bauld, from the
