SmallBusinessNewz

At a small business, every employee's presence (or absence) makes a difference.  Still, work becomes pretty inefficient, anyway, when people leave their desks every five minutes to blow their noses, or worse yet, vomit, so consider placing an emphasis on health.

The loss of a single worker for a few days is much better than having the entire company come down with some nasty bug.  An Online Recruitment article refers to a recent study, and quotes Ed Sweeney, the Acas Chair, as saying, "It . . . places a lot emphasis on the role early intervention can play in reducing the problem of ill health at work - this ties in strongly with Acas' 'prevention over cure' approach to dealing with wider employment issues."

Also, "The review by [National Director for Health and Work] Dame Carol Black shows that creating a healthy workplace has strong benefits for individuals and organisations."

Try offering sick time, or the opportunity to make up work later, so that you're not financially punishing employees who stay home when ill.  Billions of dollars get lost due to sickness; tossing a little money at the problem in one of these ways could help fix it.

If nothing else, you'll at least be thought of as a nicer boss.  Just keep an eye out for sick days that correspond with birthdays or major concerts.