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The shocking statistics of smokers

Smoking Statistics

Did you know that smokers could be costing you a fortune in the workplace?

There are tonnes of statistics surrounding just how much time they take each day, away from their desk, for a smoke. Research shows that with 27% of people spending around an hour each day smoking, the figures are more like 200 hours a year, doing nothing, basically, a typical five working weeks just went to smoking.

To tot these figures up, it means employees are disregarding the ‘one break every 6 hours’ rule and taking things into their own hands. It takes approximately seven and a half minutes to smoke a cigarette, but once you add on getting outside, waiting for smoking buddies, and walking back to the workstation, you’re looking at more like 10 minutes per fag. With most smokers admitting to smoking a total of six cigarettes at work each day, you’re easily into an hour if not more when it comes to highly addicted smokers.

By employing smokers, you’re taking a risk in terms of productivity in the office. Not only from the smokers themselves; it’s not unusual to find non-smokers becoming distracted out of resentment for the number of breaks they’re not taking leading to a widely unsettled office, and not a huge amount of motivation.

As an employer, what can you do?

The first thing you need to understand is that quitting smoking is really hard. Although the withdrawal symptoms only last for a few days or sometimes a week, getting to that point seems impossible to long-term smokers. This all comes down to the effect that nicotine has on the brain, within five seconds of smoking a cigarette the reward receptors are triggers giving smokers that instantly hit.

With this in mind, support is the number one priority when it comes to smokers. With Stoptober here, it’s the perfect time of year to provide guidance, advice and incentives to all of your employees to help those who smoke, ditch the habit. By encouraging your employees to encourage each other to quit smoking, you can save your business at least £4000 per smoker per year while improving team morale.

Corporate Health Insurance

General & Medical are here to help you keep your employees happy and healthy with our corporate private health cover plans. Within all of our corporate covers, your employees will have access to a 24/7 Health & Wellbeing support service plus a wide range of other benefits to keep their health on track.

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