Workplace stress not addressed: Survey; Health, productivity programs help to lower employer costs.

Byline: JOANNE WOJCIK

Companies that maintain health and productivity management programs despite the recession are experiencing lower health care and disability costs and less absenteeism than their counterparts that cut back, according to a joint survey by Watson Wyatt Worldwide and the National Business Group on Health.

But most employers are doing little or nothing to relieve the stress many employees experience due to long hours at work, a lack of work/life balance, and fear they may lose their jobs, the 2009/2010 Staying@Work report found.

"Investments in health and productivity management paid off for employers that stayed the course despite the …