What can businesses learn from professional sports?

What is your favourite professional football/rugby/cricket team? Or even favourite golfer or tennis player?

Let’s use Brighton and Hove Albion as an example. What happens to their star player when they get injured? Let’s pretend Lewis Dunk suffers a nasty cruciate ligament injury which will rule him out for months.

As a business, Brighton and Hove Albion know that they need their best players on the pitch to give them the best chance to succeed. That is why they provide medical insurance to their players so that they can access medical treatment fast without having to wait on the NHS for treatment. This enables them to get Lewis Dunk back to full fitness ASAP.

This could lead to them picking up more points which helps keep the Albion in the Premier League for another year and earns them millions of pounds. Shirt sales stay high, demand on season tickets remains high and club go from strength to strength. All because of getting their captain ‘back to work’.

Now- think about your business. Who is your star player? Who is your captain? Now ask yourself what happens to your business if your star player is off work with an injury or illness? Are you going to lose out on sales? Are you going to have to pay overtime to other staff to cover the workload? Are you going to have to hire a temporary employee if it’s a more serious condition?

What are you doing to get your ‘star player’ back to work? According to Personnel Today magazine, absenteeism costs UK businesses an average of £568 per person, per year with an employee taking 6.4 days off each year. Having your star players off work costs you money.

Private medical insurance is not exclusively for your favourite sports team. At WPA, we specialise in providing medical insurance for the self-employed and SME’s. Investing in your team can save you money in the long term.

To find out more, please contact Daniel Wade from WPA Healthcare on daniel.wade@hcp-plc.org.uk.