The Cost to Businesses When Workers Have a Drinking Problem
by Lisa Frederiksen
I was researching the costs of untreated alcoholism and came across an excellent website, Ensuring Solutions to Alcohol Problems, a project of the Center for Integrated Behavioral Health Policy, part of the Department of Health Policy at the School of Public Health and Health Services, The George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, DC.
Quoting one of the Q & As on their site:
Why does it cost companies money when their workers are in trouble with alcohol?
Employees don’t need to be addicted to alcohol to cost companies money. Light and moderate drinkers cause 60 percent of alcohol-related incidents of absenteeism, tardiness and poor quality of work, while dependent drinkers cause 40 percent. The primary business costs of problem drinking are from the treatment of alcohol-related injuries and health conditions, lost time from work and reduced productivity. For example, employees are nearly two times more likely to call in sick the day after drinking heavily than on other days. These costs could be decreased if substance abuse treatment, which is highly cost-effective, were more available.
Check their page, “Alcohol Problems Cost American Business,” to better understand the nature of these costs, and check out their “Alcohol Cost Calculator for Businesses” to find out how much problem drinking costs your business.
