Employees taking sick leave or, worse, working when they are unwell costs businesses 7.78 per cent of their yearly wage bill in lost productivity, according to a new report.

The Britain’s Healthiest Company report, published by Mercer and PruHealth, calculates the overall cost to the economy of unhealthy employees is £58 billion per year.

It quizzed workers at 82 different companies about their lifestyle and attitude to health and fitness. It found 62 per cent of respondents had at least two bad lifestyle habits, including drinking, eating unhealthy, failing to exercise or smoking.

The report, which analysed data from 25,000 employees in total, said there was a strong link between lifestyle risk factors, employees’ health and absence from work.

Neville Koopowitz at Pru Health said: ““Employees often lack the motivation to bring about the necessary change themselves, the workplace is the ideal agent of change due to the amount of time staff spends there, but to date has been very under-utilised.”

In other findings from the report, 52 per cent of employees don’t have a balanced diet, 40 per cent were smokers and more than a third were not hitting basic levels of exercise.