The Market Coalition

Workers across the UK are blowing away more than just rings of curly smoke due to their dangerous habit. They are also blowing away an astronomical sum of £2.1bn annually, it has now been revealed.

According to a report by the London School of Economics (LSE) on behalf of NHS Smokefree, companies in the UK suffer enormous annual losses of up to £2.1bn as direct costs of smoking. Smoking-related illness absences cost the UK economy £1.1bn, and occasional cigarette breaks cause an annual loss of £1bn. It is estimated that smokers take 1.77 days leave over and above the average sick leave of non-smoking employees.

The figure of total losses would be even higher if the cost of commercial fire damage attributable to smoking is taken into account. It would further soar if implicit costs were included, like damage to company image from workers smoking outside the premises, or the displeasure of non-smokers who consider smoke-breaks of their addicted colleagues as means of shunning work.

These substantial losses and their causes expose the gravity of the situation, but at the same time they show how small improvements could result in major savings, says Professor Alistair McGuire, Head of Social Policy at LSE and lead researcher for the report. To promote a positive health and safety culture in your workplace environment a nebosh course operated by the experts from Workplace Law Training could be just what your organisation needs to cut the health and safety risks that apply in your workplace.

Drew Collins of the NHS Stop Smoking Services summed up the findings of the research when he stated that smoking is bad for both, your health and business. Dr Linda Bauld, from the University of Bath and UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies, suggests that stop smoking support in the workplace, help from a trained adviser either in groups or one to one, and ready access to stop smoking drugs are some of the positive measures that can be undertaken to rid UK workplaces of the smoking menace.

The Water Cooler Company - although now based in Merton, was nurtured during its first two years in a warehouse in Wandsworth. Very close to the centre of London, Wandsworth was an ideal location for our first years of development. The Water Cooler market in Wandsworth is proportional in size to man other boroughs around London - however the comfort in putting in mains fed water coolers for us makes it an perfect locale for us to start our water cooler discount strategy “Water Coolers for London by London”. We reckon one of the most essential documents we look at every year to be our annual customer survey results. Last year one of the main reasons why customers enjoy our water cooler service is our very high level of customer care - and the ability of our team members to dissolve problems that pop up promptly and efficiently. To this end we have launched a scheme to repay a group of our most local Wandsworth mains fed water cooler customers. All clients will be told at the end of July 2009 about our discount scheme “Water Coolers for London by London” which will mean that they will receive a 5% discount off their annual bill simply by being set in Wandsworth. Any new customers based in the Wandsworth borough will get this discount off their first years bill if they quote “Water Coolers for London by London” when they make their premier order. The discount will be automatically implemented to their bills for mains fed water coolers in subsequent years.