In the first in a series of weekly posts we welcome Dr John McMahon to Discuss HR. John is an alcohol expert and will be looking at our relationship with alcohol and why employers are in denial about this perceived taboo subject. (Ed Scrivener)
Recently I was presenting at a conference run by the CIPD on the topic of the costs of alcohol to business. I looked out on this sea of polite but somewhat disinterested faces who were wondering what all of this had to do with them. So I broke off from my talk to take a straw poll. “Hands up” I said “if you think that society has a problem with alcohol.” A forest of hands shot up, this was more like it, they were thinking, we are definitely concerned citizens who are up to date on what is happening in society and yes, the government definitely needs to do more about binge drinking. “OK, hands up those who think that your organisation has a problem with alcohol.” None, not one, zero, zilch.
“That’s interesting, you believe that society has a problem, but your organisation has no problem. Could you tell me where you get your workers from?” There were one or two embarrassed giggles as the penny dropped. However, a few weeks later I was presenting to another group of senior HR people and tried the same questions, with the same result. Traditionally denial is cited as one of the symptoms of alcoholism, however it usually refers to individuals. Judging by my straw poll (granted unscientific) and my experience of dealing with employers, there seems to be a corporate denial preventing examination of need for change.
What about you, how would you answer these questions? (Be honest now).
The Statistics
So why do employers, managers, HR professionals apparently fail to make the connection until they are forced to acknowledge it. Perhaps it is the way that it is presented. For example, the latest government statistic for the cost of drinking to industry is £7.3billion. That is a big number; in fact it is the kind of number that makes it very easy to say that, it does not have any significance for me or my organisation. It is a number that overwhelms and hides the very real problem in a mind numbing statistic. Maybe we need to break this number down and look at what it means in a more meaningful level.
These estimated costs are made up of absenteeism, which we all know is very difficult to estimate. Generally workers don’t phone in and say I had a real bender last night and am not fit to come to work; no it is more likely to be, vomiting and diarrhoea, bad cold or migraine. However even if they do drag themselves to work they may be unfit, due to still being intoxicated or hungover – what is called presenteeism.
In one survey, over a third of workers interviewed admitted having been at work with a hangover, 1 in 10 reported being at work with a hangover once a month and 1 in 20 said this happened once a week. Of the workers who admitted being hungover at work, many of them admitted lacking concentration, being unproductive and making mistakes. In this same survey 15% of the workers admitted to having been drunk at work. Indeed the estimated costs for presenteeism are now recognised to be higher than those for absenteeism. Other costs are correcting mistakes, replacement, short and long term, disciplinary proceedings, accidents etc.
Drinking Culture
In recent years there has been increased recognition that we need to look at drinking in the workplace in a different way than we have traditionally regarded it. First, there is an increasing recognition that workplaces have a ‘drinking culture’. For some workplaces the culture may be one of heavy drinking during and after work, where drinking is seen as part of the bonding ritual and may even define the identity of the working group. Heavy drinking tends to be associated with occupations that are male dominated and are regarded as ‘macho’ type jobs, such as police, emergency services and military. In these types of work environments drinking, and often heavy drinking, is the expected norm and non-drinkers and moderate drinkers may have difficulty bonding with the group.
Binge Drinking
The recent rise of binge drinking in the UK has brought about the second difference. Previous approaches have understandably tended to highlight and target the dependent drinkers (alcoholics), as they were seen as the main sources of costs. However with the rise of binge drinking it is now recognised that, although dependent drinkers may incur greater costs individually, the widespread culture of binge drinking means that this group, due to its greater size, contributes more to the costs than the dependent drinkers.
Finally to contextualise these costs even more, let us look at them on an average cost per worker basis. Current estimates break the costs down to between £250-350 per worker, (this is a conservative estimate, as it only accounts for loss of productivity due to absenteeism and presenteeism). Taking the mid-point this works out at £300 per worker per annum. In a workplace with 100 workers this would represent a cost of £30,000; roughly the cost of one to one and a half extra employees. Remember this is an average cost, depending on the nature of the workplace, the cost could be more or less.
As an employer can you afford to ignore these sorts of costs in your workplace? In the current climate where money is so tight, addressing your workforces drinking could give you a competitive edge by saving you money. You are probably thinking, yes but that costs money. True, but the good news is that for every £1 you spend on addressing the issue you could save at least £3. So it is a win win situation.
Can you help?
We are trying to gain a better understanding of the cost of drinking to employers and the measures they are taking to address it. If you would like to help us please complete the brief survey (it takes less than 5 minutes. You can find it at http://drjohnmcmahon.com/survey/ Thank you!
About the author
Dr John McMahon is an alcohol expert who has been involved in the alcohol and drug field for 30 years. He is currently the CEO of Iloumanate Ltd, a company with a mission to change the binge culture of the UK part of which involves helping employers save money by addressing their workforce’s drinking using a free website www.spreade.com
Previously he was senior lecturer in alcohol and drugs at the Centre for Alcohol and Drug Studies at the University of the West of Scotland for 12 years and Research fellow at the University of Glasgow before that. He was responsible for setting up and writing the MSc in Alcohol and Drug Studies as a distance learning course. This is now the largest course of its kind in the UK.
He was Research Director for a major alcohol treatment charity, was the National Chair of the Alcohol Counsellor Training scheme. He has published two books and about fifty papers in scholarly journals, has presented at many national and international conferences and is included in Marquis Who’s Who.
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