Worker Productivity | Flu & Pneumonia Evaluation Measures

Worker productivity measures for adult immunization^1-4

Healthier employees are less likely to call in sick. Companies can sometime assess sick day use to determine whether health programs are increasing worker productivity.

Baseline

• Determine the number of sick days per employee due to vaccine-preventable diseases such as influenza in the past 24 months (or over two winters since one winter is considered a flu season). These data can be found in time and attendance systems 
  • If employees are required to present a physician’s note upon return to work after sick leave, these notes can also be reviewed
  • This measure may be less useful if there has been a large increase or decrease in numbers of employees over the past 24 months
  • Measurement over 2 seasons is beneficial since there may be variation in the severity and spread of influenza in a given season
  • Many people call a number of illnesses the “flu” when many of the illnesses are not influenza. When measuring the baseline number of sick days due to influenza be aware of the fact that “flu” is often not influenza
• Conduct baseline surveys of employee reports of influenza and/or pneumonia episodes in the past 24 months (or 2 flu seasons)
• Determine the costs of worker absenteeism related to vaccine-preventable diseases such as influenza including costs of replacement workers, costs in training replacement workers, and loss and delay in productivity◦Determine the absenteeism costs of employees before and after a vaccine-preventable disease program such as an influenza education program or vaccination campaign
• Determine time employees spend during working hours participating in vaccine-preventable disease-related worksite programs

Process

• Re-assess the number of sick days per employee due to vaccine-preventable diseases such as influenza at the first follow-up evaluation. This evaluation should occur at least one year after baseline measures
• Periodic repeats of baseline measures

Outcome

• Assess changes in the average number of sick days per employee in repeated annual follow-up evaluations
• Assess changes in the time employees spend during working hours participating in vaccine-preventable disease-related worksite programs
• Assess changes in costs from baseline (annually)◦Compare absenteeism costs of employees before and after a vaccine-preventable disease program such as an influenza education program or vaccination campaign