While there is no exact recipe for creating a successful business, new research suggests that  successful companies have in  common a wealth of elements  that benefit their employees' work environments.

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Wellness Together, a syndicated research project carried out by  Sapio Research, demonstrates  productivity, creativity and even profitability can be affected by employee conditions(page 18). 

This is because well designed, innovative workplaces where  people feel well treated, work  better in a variety of ways. The  study highlights the important  link between positive office  cultures and the feel-good factor.

Since 2003, in the UK there has been a general decline in the number of days lost to sickness absence, particularly during the economic downturn. An equivalent to 4.3 days per worker (the lowest recorded since the series began  
in 1993, when it was at 7.2 days per worker) were lost in 2016 but,  at the same time, productivity  has decreased.

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Given the apparent inverse relationship between productivity and absenteeism and the challenges the UK is facing with low levels of  productivity, it's important to  understand other factors that  might be causing the problem.

Presenteeism is a relatively new  concept that suggests people being  at work while unwell is costing  the UK twice as much as  absenteeism(1). Intuitively this  makes sense but there’s increasing evidence that the workplace itself  can have the same impact as personal illness on productivity.  So it’s not just aspects that  enhance productivity that need.