No, it's not stress: company culture is the most important factor influencing the health of the workforce, according to the latest AOK study, which was recently published in the "Absenteeism Report 2016" by scientific publisher Springer. For years, the health insurance companies' health reports have been reporting increasing numbers of mental illnesses and stress disorders. The increased pace of work, the growing workload in the digitalized working world or the fear of possibly losing one's job have often been cited as the cause. However, the new AOK absenteeism report comes to a different conclusion. "Stress is not the decisive factor, it's about the corporate culture," said co-author Professor Bernhard Badura from Bielefeld University at the presentation of the report in Berlin. It has a significant influence on motivation and therefore on the health and performance of the workforce.

Three main aspects of a health-promoting corporate culture

A representative survey of employees conducted by the AOK Scientific Institute serves as evidence for his thesis. They identified three main aspects of a health-promoting corporate culture:

1. the company has my back
2. my work is valued
3. I have an influence on business decisions

According to the survey, however, only 55 percent of the employees surveyed felt that their employer actually stood behind them. Only half of those surveyed stated that their work was valued.
 

Causal chain of dissatisfaction

It seems that there is a chain of causes that leads straight to illness if these three health-promoting (salutogenic) factors are not fulfilled. Almost one in three of those surveyed who complained about a poor corporate culture were absent from work for more than two weeks in 2015. Among satisfied employees, on the other hand, it was only one in six. Frustrated employees were more than twice as likely to complain about physical symptoms (66%) such as back pain, exhaustion and mental health problems (65%). This figure is only 32% and 36% respectively for satisfied employees.
 

Presenteeism is more common among frustrated employees

Of particular interest is the phenomenon of presenteeism, a behavior in which people go to work even though they feel ill or are ill according to a doctor's diagnosis. According to the report, dissatisfied employees go to work against medical advice much more often than their satisfied colleagues (17 percent compared to 12 percent). It seems that fear of restrictions plays a significant role here.
 

Demands on a new management culture for the 21st century

In view of these results, Badura calls for a paradigm shift in the boardroom. The management culture often still corresponds to the requirements of the 20th century, he criticizes. Today we live in the 21st century and the digital age has dawned, the economy is developing into a knowledge society in which values such as trust, meaningfulness and social competence are in demand. Although the old management culture of fear and control is still practiced, it is completely outdated. "Cooperation, not competition, brings about top performance. The central task of managers should not be to control but to promote employees," says Badura.
 

Good corporate culture brings clear competitive advantages

Particularly in view of the shortage of skilled workers, a positive corporate culture is the decisive factor in retaining employees in the long term, emphasizes Helmut Schröder, Deputy Managing Director of the Scientific Institute of the AOK. A positive corporate culture is also a decisive advantage in the competition for sales markets and customers.

Only minimal increase in sickness rates overall in 2016 - rising absenteeism due to mental illness

In addition to the survey, the AOK analyzed the sickness-related absenteeism of its almost 12 million members for the absenteeism report. In 2015, it increased slightly by 0.1 percentage points to 5.3% compared to the previous year. On average, each employee was absent from work for 19.5 days. Respiratory illnesses increased in particular due to the wave of colds at the beginning of 2015. According to the report, every tenth day of sickness-related absence from work is due to mental illness. These continue to rise and are the cause of particularly long periods of absence. On average, employees with mental illness are absent from work for 25.6 days. In contrast, the average absence for all illnesses is 11.6 days.

Source: Badura, B., A. Ducki, H. Schröder, J. Klose and M. Meyer, eds. (2016). Absenteeism Report 2016: Corporate culture and health - challenges and opportunities. Berlin Heidelberg, Springer-Verlag.