Future Research

Each month in 2010, IBI will distribute a new research product to members – whether an IBI Full Report, Quick Study or Research Insight. We will bring you a steady flow of research throughout the year that will contribute to improving your efforts to manage health, absence/disability and productivity.

Three major studies are on tap for 2010:

1. Employer Strategies for Managing Health and Productivity: A survey of 450 employers detailing the health and productivity management programs they have implemented, their plans over the next two years and how they are measuring key outcomes.
2. Corporate Measures of Success and Health & Productivity Programs: Starting with the HPM survey of 450 employers, we’ll calculate an effectiveness rating for HPM practices and analyze how the scores are related to key corporate financial measures of success such as profit margins, return on assets and revenue per employee.
3. Chronic Health, Lost Time, Employee Performance and Engagement: Working with an IBI large manufacturing employer member, we’ll investigate the relationships among health, absence, presenteeism, productivity and employee performance, and engagement. We’ll address the question: do healthier employees perform at higher levels and are they more engaged in their organizations?

While these projects are underway, IBI also will publish a series of Quick Studies – short, focused research pieces from available databases that address key issues in health and productivity management. Quick Studies will be drawn from a variety of topics including: (1) on-the-job performance and presenteeism, (2) opportunities for employers to reduce short-term disability durations, (3) contributions of acute and chronic health conditions to lost time, (4) refinement of lost-productivity models, (5) variation by employee, employer and industry in workers’ compensation outcomes, (6) chronic illness, treatment and lost time, and (7) effectiveness of employer health and productivity management programs. We’ll supplement these periodically with IBI Research Insights that bring you summaries of key peer-reviewed research important to you.

We’re also working with research partners to develop additional projects, including: (1) the impact of chronic health conditions on workers’ compensation experience, (2) integrating productivity into value-based benefits design, (3) implications of medication compliance on lost productivity costs, (4) how employers use employee self-reported information in managing health and productivity and (5) reflecting workforce health and productivity as a corporate asset on the balance sheet.