Monitor on Psychology - September 2011 - (Page 44)

are hard to replace and work in teams. If an airline pilot calls in sick, for example, an airline could lose the revenue for an entire airplane and its crew as they scramble to find a replacement pilot or rebook passengers on other flights. “You have to look at the ripple effect on the team members and profits,” Nicholson said. By surveying 800 employers about the degree to which workers are replaceable, work in teams and have time-sensitive jobs, Nicholson and his colleagues created a list of “multipliers” for 33 occupations to estimate the true cost of an employee’s sick day, (Health Economics, Vol. 15, No. 2). Topping the list were paralegals, whose true cost to law firms in terms of lost productivity is almost twice that of their individual salaries. Fastfood cooks, in comparison, only cost restaurants or bars the equivalent of a day of pay when “employers are banking on a new crop of young, healthy workers coming in and replacing they call in sick. the older ones, and that just isn’t going to happen,” said Dr. John Howard, director of the national Institute for occupational Safety and Health. Across all occupations, the true cost of a sick day was about 60 percent higher than traditional prepare workers for the realities of the new economy, in which estimates, the researchers found. workers will likely have several jobs, even careers, over their The ripple effects for sick workers, however, go further than lives. At the same time, occupational health psychologists and just their individual companies, said Brian Bankert, a researcher economists can help governments and employers meet the for Healthways, a Franklin, Tenn., company that develops challenges of the coming decades by, for instance, calculating employee wellness programs. In a session on the economics the true cost of unhealthy workers and creating cost-effective of worker health, Bankert proposed a formula that takes into employee wellness programs. account the effects of a sick worker on other companies in the “Companies may be underinvesting in the health of their region — for instance, those that supply the given company workers,” said Nicholson. “But if we can show them how it with raw materials. affects their bottom line, they won’t be for long.” In one study of a 2,000-person insurance firm, Bankert Co-sponsored by APA, NIOSH and the Society for simulated employee values based on the productivity of the Occupational Health Psychology, the conference convened more health insurance industry and industry economic multipliers, than 700 participants from 45 countries including economists, available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Bureau psychologists and other researchers. The conference, the ninth of Economic Analysis, respectively. He found that an average since the series began in 1989, focused on the changing nature worker at this firm cost his or her company $3,409 in lost of work and the implications of these changes for the health, productivity in sick days over the course of the year — or about safety, and well-being of workers. $6.8 million across all 2,000 workers. However, those employees’ sick days had a much bigger cost to their regions — about $13.2 The true cost of illness million in lost productivity, he found. That’s a lot of money that Economists traditionally determine the cost of a sick worker could otherwise go toward salaries, Bankert added. by calculating their pay for a given day — since a worker’s pay “How many new jobs could we create at the regional level by should, in theory, estimate what his or her labor is worth on decreasing sick days at a single firm?” he asked. the open market, said Howard. However, that doesn’t account for the domino effects of missing workers, especially ones who 44 Monitor on psychology • septeMber 2011 Silver Image Photo Agency

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Monitor on Psychology - September 2011

Monitor on Psychology - September 2011
Letters
President’s Column
Contents
From the CEO
Supreme Court hears psychologists on prison and video game cases
Antipsychotics are overprescribed in nursing homes
New MCAT likely to recognize the mind-body connection
A $2 million boost for military and families
In Brief
GOVERNMENT RELATIONS UPDATE
On Your Behalf
Judicial Notebook
Random Sample
TIME CAPSULE
QUESTIONNAIRE
Speaking of Education
SCIENCE WATCH
An uncertain future for American workers
Advocating for psychotherapy
PRACTICE PROFILE
ETHICALLY SPEAKING
Seared in our memories
Helping kids cope in an uncertain world
APA and Nickelodeon team up
Muslims in America, post 9/11
Bin Laden’s death
‘They expect us to be there’
Answering the call of public policy
Candidates answer final questions
APA News
Division Spotlight
New leaders
AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATION
Disaster relief training
Honoring teaching excellence
Personalities

Monitor on Psychology - September 2011

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