Headline: Flu Shots Make Good Economics
It has been estimated that economic losses due to influenza amount to
$400
per employee per year. If these costs can be avoided with a flu shot costing
$40, including the physician visit, it's worth it, since about ten to
twenty
percent of employees are impacted each year.
One wonders what might happen if that kind of calculation were extended
to
other matters. For example, what if employers could avoid nearly all
migraines and tension headaches among their employees? What would that
be
worth?
What if the employees no longer had PMS issues?
What if they no longer suffered insomnia?
Surely the productivity increase would be significantly greater than $400
per
year.
The mind races on…
What if the employer could reduce the symptoms of adult ADHD among the
employees? At least ten percent of the worker population would function
much
better.
What would an employer give for having an entire work force that does
not
abuse alcohol or other drugs?
What about anger? How much does it cost the employer to have
difficult-to-manage workers with an anger problem?
And what would the employer give to have back those employees lost to
minor
head injury or whiplash?
Or what would it worth to have his mid-level managers retain their mental
skills as they approach retirement?
And why stop there?
What if the employer could allow the workers to train for a larger IQ
by some
five to ten IQ points?
What if he could offer a remedy for procrastination? For those with
organizational mental gridlock?
What if he could send someone to a class and say, "come back with
a better
memory"?
All these are real possibilities through neurofeedback training. Perhaps
someone should lay out the cost-benefit analyses for employers.