Do you go to work while sick?

How many employees in your company come to work coughing, sneezing, and aching all over every day?

Going to work when sick is a persistent problem at more than half of Canadian and U.S. workplaces. It costs U.S. businesses $245 billion a year, according to research conducted by CCH, a Riverwoods, Ill.-based provider of business and corporate law information.

The Canadian metalworking industry has the second-highest sick rate of any industry in Canada. Why? The work is stressful.

Like its more notorious counterpart absenteeism, it takes on growing importance as employers try to keep an eye on productivity and the bottom line. Going to work sick can make a real impact on the bottom line, although it is often unrecognized.

Recent research by CCH, a division of accounting and tax associates Wolters Kluwer, indicates that 72 per cent of human resource executives see going to work sick as a problem. That's up from 44 per cent making the same complaint two years ago.

Going to work sick costs employers in terms of lowered productivity, prolonged illness for sick workers, and the potential spread of illness to colleagues and customers.

Going to work sick also can prove elusive to measure, unlike absenteeism, said Cheryl Koopman, a professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at Stanford University and an expert on workplace stress and going to work sick.

"We all think we know somebody who's made us sick, when that person is speaking into the same phone or touching your computer or even turning your doorknob," she said, adding that she, too, is guilty.

"Cancelling a class because I have a cold just doesn't seem justifiable," she said. "I'll keep my distance from the students; I'll try not to cough at them; I think of how I'm going to do it without anybody getting sick."

As often as two-thirds of the time, sick people go to work because they feel they have too much work to do, according to the CCH study.

The second-most common reason is workers believe no one else is available to cover their work load.

Lean workforces, which are common in many manufacturing settings, mean employees often feel they have to show up for work, whether it's out of guilt over staying home or concerns over job security.

Employers and health insurers are increasingly eyeing disease and health management programs as a way to ensure a healthier workforce. Some companies and private health plans are looking at a powerful motivator to entice their employees to participate in such programs: cash incentives.

According to a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers, 89 per cent of CEOs of large companies view incentives as the most promising tool to drive health care cost reductions.

IBM has paid out $185 million in wellness incentives, an investment in its workforce the company says it expects to pay off as it encourages employees to participate in walking teams or play basketball during their lunch breaks.

More than half of major U.S. employers offer healthy living incentives to their employees.

According to most experts, healthier employee behaviour pays off for employers in the form of lower health care costs, improved productivity, and reduced absenteeism. The key is to develop a program that recognizes the importance of health management and creates incentives to live a healthier lifestyle, even at work.