New survey highlights negative impact of smoking on company productivity

Nearly half of employers believe that smoking has a negative financial impact on their company and that their employees who smoke are actually less productive than their non-smoking counterparts.

Even more surprisingly, almost a third of smokers (31%) agree that they are less productive in the workplace owing to their smoking habits.

The Global Workplace Survey shows that the average smoker smokes 8-10 cigarettes per day, which takes an average of half an hour. When calculated on a calendar year, this equates to approximately 17 working days - just over three weeks - lost per year, per smoker.

Across the GCC region, there are ongoing discussions regarding reducing smoking in the workplace.

Dubai Municipality is pushing new regulations regarding smoking in all enclosed spaces - to be enforced across all shopping malls, cafes, restaurants, universities and business premises.

The legislation is being introduced in phases, to provide people with time to quit smoking, and businesses with sufficient notice to introduce new processes and policies.

As well as new legislation, the UAE has pushed forward with a number of innovations to reduce the level of smoking across society.

It was the first country in the Middle East and Africa to approve the prescription of Champix, the innovative non-nicotine treatment that has been specifically designed to help people quit.

Since its introduction in the UAE in September 2007, it has become one of the most effective treatments provided to patients looking to quit smoking.

Research from the WHO suggests that less than 5% of smokers successfully quit without help or support, reflecting both the chronic and challenging nature of nicotine addiction and the difficulties inherent in creating a 100% smoke-free environment.

Champix is different because it treats nicotine addiction in a novel and effective way.

It aids smoking cessation by reducing the severity of the smoker's urge to smoke and alleviating many withdrawal symptoms from nicotine.

Moreover, if a person smokes a cigarette while receiving treatment, the medicine has the potential to diminish the sense of satisfaction associated with smoking.

Despite the importance of reducing smoking, on average less than 40% of employers believe they have a responsibility to help their employees quit smoking, and of the employers surveyed who do have a policy to counteract smoking, most do not extend their support beyond enforcement of a workplace ban.

The majority of employees (86%) surveyed say that - in spite of the new workplace legislation - the smoking ban alone is not effective in helping them to quit smoking.

Instead, many employees would like help from their employers in the form of counselling for quitting (48%) and subsidies for smoking cessation products (26%) to help them kick the habit.
The need for additional support is highlighted by the fact that only 5% of smokers who try to quit using willpower alone succeeded.

Almost all employers questioned in the survey believe that smoking is not acceptable in the workplace (93%), an attitude reflected even by the 71% of employees surveyed who smoke.

Only a quarter of smokers say they are encouraged to quit by workplace policies, as the most common effect of a workplace ban (62%) is simply that employees find somewhere else to smoke.

The Workplace Survey, conducted by Harris Interactive and supported by Pfizer, was one of the largest global surveys conducted to investigate the attitudes of employers and employees towards smoking.

3,515 adult employee smokers and 1,403 employers from 14 countries were interviewed for the study, over an 11-week period.