Human Resources Issues for Senior Management
Issue link: https://digital.hrreporter.com/i/605961
CANADIAN HR STRATEGY/07 FEATURE/roundtable IMPACTS ON EMPLOYEE, WORKPLACE The impacts of diabetes can manifest in the workplace in terms of productivity, says Valerie Taylor, chief, general and health system at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. "You're fatigued, you can't concentrate as well, you just have a lot of physical dif culties and you can just get a lot of burnout. People start to become really frustrated with the fact that they have this chronic condition that we have good treatments for, but we certainly have no cures," she says. Employees will probably also need to take steps to manage the condition throughout the workday, says Nagpal. "A person (may need) to monitor their blood glucose — that can be self-monitoring in the workplace — as well as take insu- lin by injection or through an insulin pump. A person may also need to have regular snacks throughout the day at the work- place. Sometimes, in cases of hypoglycemia, they need to treat their blood sugar throughout the day," she says. Because the treatments for diabetes have improved so much, we're seeing many more people with the condition in the workforce, says Taylor. And that can cause signi cant costs in terms of absenteeism and presenteeism. "They're going to be at work — because their medications have allowed them to be and that's great — but if we haven't done other things to help them function at an optimal level, we haven't helped them to get their illnesses under control, they're going to be there but they're not going to be focused. They're not going to be able to work at their full level of capac- ity," she says. "Those are signi cant costs to the employer, but also detrimental to the employee as well because people don't want to be at work and be fatigued, and not be able to produce the "IF WE DON'T START TO DO EDUCATION, PREVENTION, IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE."