News
Helping your employees to quit smoking
27 Apr 2007
With the smoking ban in England only months away, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has released a guide for employers who want to help employees to quit.
NICE points out that although employers are not legally obliged to help, those that do may see benefits, in terms of reducing the risk of employee non-compliance with the law, improved sickness absence records and increased productivity.
Methods
A number of methods to help employees quit smoking are suggested, including group behaviour therapy and self-help materials. NICE recommends four ways that employers can help:
- Publicise the methods of quitting explained in the NICE guidance and provide information on local support services available.
- Be responsive to individual needs; if possible provide on-site support.
- Allow staff to attend sessions during working hours without loss of pay.
- Develop a quit smoking policy with staff and their representatives.
One suggestion has received more attention than the others – allowing staff to attend sessions or receive service during working hours. Many commentators have argued that this puts non-smokers at a disadvantage and is unfair because smokers choose to smoke.
Incentives to quit
The incentive to quit may be helped by research which shows that smokers may be losing out in the employment market. Nuffield Proactive Health surveyed managerial level employers, with 73% saying they would choose a non-smoking candidate over a smoker.
As well as favouring non-smokers managers are not convinced that it is the employer’s role to help employees quit – only 44% thought employers had a duty to help employees that wish to quit.
NICE calculations put the loss of working hours as a result of illness suffered by smokers at an average of 33 hours per year for every person who smokes. Cutting down the number of smokers by even a small amount can have a big impact, as NICE shows in its costing template (see link below).
Links:
the NICE guidelines: http://guidance.nice.org.uk/PHI5
costing template: www.nice.org.uk/page.aspx?o=424891