Without employees, your business is just you sitting in an empty office. You can’t function without them and while it’s normal for them to be off sick sometimes, it becomes a big problem if you have a lot of employees suffering from health problems. A lot of those health problems can’t be avoided and you’ll just have to work around them but you should still be taking steps to make sure that they’re healthy while they’re at work. These are some of the easiest ways to reduce employee illness around the office.

Keep The Office Clean

When you’ve got that many people all working in one building, it can easily get dirty. This is bad news for you because a lot of bacteria around the office increases the chance of people getting sick. That’s why it’s important that you’re always keeping the office as clean as possible. Get a good cleaning service like ServiceMaster to come in every day and give the office a once over. Beyond that, make sure that you encourage all of your employees to keep their own desk area and any communal areas clean. The kitchen, in particular, is a danger zone because any old food that is left out becomes a breeding ground for bacteria.

Offer Private Healthcare

If one of your employees does have a serious health problem, you want them to get the best possible treatment so they can get well and come back to work as soon as possible. If you want to help them get seen to as quickly as possible, you could consider offering private healthcare cover. The wait times are going to be a lot shorter and they’ll have a more comfortable experience if they do need to go into hospital. It can be pretty expensive so it depends on how many employees you have. If you’re running a large operation, this may not be cost effective. But if you only have a handful of employees, you should be able to stretch to it. Offering private healthcare cover also helps to attract the best talent when you’re hiring.

Don’t Forget Mental Health

Mental health is the biggest danger to your employees and if you aren’t taking steps to ensure that they are happy and healthy, you’ll end up losing some good staff. A poor work-life balance is one of the major things you need to be aware of. There has been a lot of research into work-life balance recently and it’s making headlines. Studies show that when people are overworked they’re far less productive and far more likely to suffer from stress related mental health conditions. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that long days and minimal holidays is getting the best out of your employees because it isn’t. Be more flexible on their hours and offer people more holidays. You’ll find that they’re much happier and they’ll be well rested so they’ll get a lot more work done when they are in the office.

Follow these steps and you’ll have healthier employees that don’t take as many sick days and you’ll soon see an increase in productivity.