How Telemedicine Reduces Absenteeism And Boosts Workplace Performance

For our company to thrive, there must be a collaborative effort between employers and employees. The moment this effort becomes one-sided, the company will likely suffer.

This can happen when our employees are consistently absent from work.

An employer is responsible for coordinating company activities, monitoring employees’ conduct and performance, and ensuring their mental and physical health.

But looking back on history, it’s been discovered that supporting and maintaining healthcare is costly and taxing. People have reported the development of new practices which require patients to restrict their complaints to just one per session, increasing the probability of scheduling another visit to the doctor concerning a different health issue. This new development has made it difficult for employees to tackle health issues and work due to time consumed during travel to and from work/home, waiting time, and consultation sessions. So, the big question is - how can employees strike a balance between their healthcare and work?

This is where telemedicine comes into the big picture. It fills the gap between absenteeism and performance.

Top Causes Of Absenteeism

illnesses are one of the five significant reasons why there is work absenteeism among employers. This is a major issue since most employees would rather miss a workday than take a day off, even for something as important as a doctor’s appointment, because of how much it would cost them.
Also, using international standards, it’s been discovered the rate of absenteeism in the EU is high. It is even higher compared to studies performed in the U.S. and U.K. The high rate makes it clear why the EU loses billions of dollars yearly alongside work productivity.

Absenteeism’s Impact On Workplace Productivity

Absenteeism produces a variety of effects on companies. A survey by the Society for Human Resource Management shows that the persistent absence of employees directly affects their co-workers and managers or employees by causing an exponential increase in the volume of work of other employees and those in charge. This also applies to the part of the managers.

Consistent absenteeism of managers from the workplace costs the employees and the whole company and reduces performance and productivity.

Forbes compiled a report after a Gallup-Healthways well-being index survey, which explained in detail the yearly cost of reduced productivity and performance depending on the job type. According to this survey, reduced productivity or performance of managers or executives costs about $15.7 billion yearly. In comparison, the cost on the side of service employees summed up to $8.5 billion per annum. For clerical and office employees, the cost was rounded to $8.1 billion, while that of sales workers at $6.8 billion and business owners costing $2 billion. These summed up costs cut across different reasons such as low motivation, decreased performance, high administrative fees and the cost of replacing or employing new workers.
If these apply to your company, maybe it is time to try telemedicine.

Telemedicine’s Unique Services

Studies reveal that almost 90 per cent of doctor’s appointments and visits could have been replaced by consulting the doctor online via a telemedicine platform. The rest of the 10 per cent need a one-on-one examination, testing, care and treatment that technology cannot replace. Nevertheless, enhancing work performance by 90 per cent or even more would make a significant impact, and we like the idea. Many telemedicine companies are making massive impacts on the healthcare and labour industry, and Mobidoctor is one of them. The virtual healthcare system has saved much time and helped people recover even faster without seeing a doctor.

Some services we offer at Mobidoctor include consultation and diagnosis for common illnesses like colds, headaches, flu, asthma, some mental health disorders and more. Through these services, your employees can quickly relay their symptoms to a medical professional and get diagnosed and treated quickly to regain focus. Everyone would pick being productive over being ill, wouldn’t they?

If you are an employer, you probably know how hard it could be to continually give hours, days or even weeks off because of an employee’s health issue. Telemedicine makes everything easier. For example, an employee takes an hour off for a doctor’s appointment ( and most times exceeds it), the next day 2 or 3 more hours off to take some exams or tests and the third day to hear and pick up results, possibly medications too. This could go on and on, and right before your eyes, a week has been exhausted on your employee’s health issue. Why go through this when this could be handled using a virtual meeting and, in a few cases, two or more?

For example, in 2013, Cisco’s Global Experience reported that about 74 per cent of its participants didn’t mind a virtual doctor’s visit. Since this report and till date, there has been an increasing rise in this new trend. Telemedicine has been thought to be most beneficial to individuals who reside and work in rural areas, thereby reducing the rate of absenteeism. Saving time and cash has never been easier.

How Telemedicine Combats Absenteeism

Telehealth is a unique system that helps patients prevent and tackle illnesses and encourages a healthy mental state and better workplace productivity and performance.
One of the major setbacks of the virtual healthcare system is its inability to substitute for one-on-one doctor visits for acute care and the cost of medical bills. A recently done survey showed that the 24/7 accessibility and availability of telemedicine made just an equal distribution of the necessary services throughout the whole week. This allows your employees to consult a doctor or make appointments outside work hours, reducing the need to be absent.

This same survey also revealed that the most common are diseases such as bladder/urinary tract infections (6%), cold, flu pertussis (12%) and sinusitis (20%). The vendors upon which the survey was done “admitted that they had been able to solve most of the patient's issues and address their conditions 83 per cent of the time” and that out of the 83 per cent, about 60 per cent of the issues had been addressed and solved through a prescription. Making this available for your employees would help reduce recovery time and increase productivity at work.

Telehealth And Mental Health

Mental health is one of the most common reasons why employees miss work. A study by AXA PP Healthcare showed that anxiety (25%) was one of the leading reasons why employees missed work and a common cold (23%). These are prevalent excuses that profoundly affect the company’s overall performance.

A virtual doctor’s visit can quickly help diagnose and treat flu and common cold symptoms. But on the other hand, depression, anxiety, stress and other related issues are a bit more complex. Although the signs of mental health illnesses or problems might be harder to identify as an employer than other illnesses, such as the flu, they are all significant. They should be accustomed to the same care and effort to improve employees' health and performance.

There, But Not Really 

It is termed presenteeism when mental health issues negatively affect the workplace and performance. This implies that a worker's physical presence at work is almost as good as his absence. This is because the employee is unable to function effectively. Just like absenteeism, presenteeism can also cost the company its general performance and some money.

The virtual health system, through the use of telemedicine, is capable of handling and solving mental health issues. Psychiatry.org draws some benefits of telepsychiatry to mental health, including decreased stigma, better access to healthcare, the ability to set appointments at the patient’s convenience, and more.
Mobidoctor medical professionals also offer online video therapy for eating disorders, depression, anxiety, substance abuse, etc. A mentally stable and healthy employee would, in turn, produce a productive and high-performing company.

Telehealth Prevention And Treatment

Take some time to imagine how productive your company would be if none of your employees fell sick, right?

It would mean no more days or weeks of sick leave and better efficiency. Telemedicine doesn’t just help address and treat diseases; it also focuses on preventing diseases from improving workplace performance and productivity.

Through telemedicine, employees can attend video therapies with their physicians for advice, labs, prescriptions and more at their convenience and can juggle this with work regardless of their working hours. This makes telemedicine very reliable and an excellent option for most people.

Unfortunately, the conventional healthcare system focuses on the sick-care model, which allocates more value to treating and curing most diseases rather than prevention. Most recent research on telemedicine and disease prevention focuses on specific diseases, such as coronary artery disease, diabetes and more.

The Rural Health Information Hub revealed that telemedicine had positively impacted many patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes by helping save them time and money while providing the necessary information and advice concerning self-management.

Just as with chronic conditions, Telehealth also helps prevent common illnesses such as flu, common cold, migraines and more. It also helps tackle mental health diseases, thereby preventing absenteeism and presenteeism.

A Healthy Employee Is A Happy One 

You feel good, you do well, and you feel better. You also do better. Virtual medicine lets employees control their general health by providing complete and convenient access to healthcare at any time and anywhere. This creates an appositive impact in their workplaces and their families, making them happier, healthier, fulfilled, and more effective.

For example, if one of your best or topmost employees begins to complain of or goes down with frequent and severe headaches, this would, in turn, cause a significant reduction in productivity and performance levels. In line with this development, I would recommend that you recommend the telemedicine services you have just acquired for the company. It grants your employee immediate access to a doctor who, in turn, reveals possible causes of his or her problem. Now, all these have happened possibly within just a few minutes, and your employee didn’t even have to visit a hospital or miss even as little as an hour of work. Amazing, right?

Now, this shows you how specific ailments or illnesses (after identification and treatment) can bring about a better lifestyle and mental and physical health through telemedicine.
In conclusion, telemedicine has been found to reasonably reduce employee workplace absenteeism and improve workplace productivity and performance. You are only really prepared for true success when you consider your team’s or employees’ care and well-being.

Remember, your company can only be as healthy as your employees are.

How Mobi Doctor Can Help

With Mobi Doctor, you can access online urgent care. Get an instant diagnosis, explore conditions and treatments, and text a healthcare professional if needed.