An investment in healthy lifestyle improvement is an investment in NASA's future, and is one of the most significant competitive advantages available today. Provide a Drug Free Workplace Monitor for health Provide professional Employee Assistance counseling Provide hazard abatement Background Research indicates that, on any given day in America, as much as 80 percent of the work force at work is not fully productive. A main cause of decreased productivity is poor health. Perhaps the most important aspect of poor health is the cost of losses arising from increased errors among impaired individuals. This is in addition to the costs of employee disability, absenteeism, and direct medical costs of hospitalizations, clinic visits, diagnostics, and pharmaceuticals.
Productivity is dependent on the health of each worker.
Employee health, high productivity, and mission success go hand in hand. In Fiscal Year 1999, NASA identified a core operational philosophy for protection of the public, astronauts, its work force and its high-value equipment. A heightened state of health and well being among the NASA work force is directly relevant to achieving that safety goal. In the current climate of shrinking resources we cannot afford that lost productivity and the loss of our most important asset, our work force.