Stop Spreading The Flu In Your Workplace. Here's How

Flu season is in full swing. And the CDC Foundation has estimated that it’s responsible for the loss of 17 million workdays each flu season. Now try calculating how much that loss equates to in dollars. A lot, right?

As startling as those numbers look, it’s not as bad as the 20% of Americans who never call out sick, regardless of their condition. But there’s a middle ground where both businesses and employees can benefit: an organizational culture that encourages flexibility.

Worried About Work

The CDC Foundation also found that despite 88% of managers encouraging sick employees to stay at home, 40% of employees feel like there’s too much going on at work to stay away. So it isn’t surprising that 42% of Americans go to work sick because of the workload or they have deadlines to meet.

Employees have to choose between staying home and not having access to work files, or going into the office sick. And employees that come into the workplace while sick are putting their colleagues at risk. However, people are seeing that staying at home isn’t an option.

Telecommuting Tools

While you might be worried that remote workers don’t get much done, it’s actually the opposite. Telecommuters are 13% more productive than those in the office.

Offer tools such as cloud-based storage or VPN so employees can have access to work files anytime, anywhere. That way, people don’t have to choose between staying at home and not working or going into work and spreading their sickness.

Workload is the main reason why employees come into work sick. But if you allow them to work from home, they will be able to complete their work in the comforts of their home and prevent any germs from spreading to other employees.

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