Kicking their butts

In the 1990s, a new sight became commonplace on British streets: workers huddled around the entrances and back doors of their offices eagerly – if sheepishly – puffing away. By then, the dangers of smoking and passive smoke had become firmly established in the public's mind. Within a decade, smoking was banned from the vast majority of workplaces.

The discomforts of exile have not deterred everyone, however. According to figures supplied by anti-smoking charity ASH, one in four of us continues to smoke at work.

Businesses are increasingly targeting the addiction. In the housing sphere, the charge is being led by St Pancras & Humanist Housing Association. The north London-based concern is one of a growing number that offers its staff incentives to quit smoking – in this case, £100 if you last three months without tobacco, with the promise of a further £100 if you make it to the six-month mark.

Wouldn't this money be better spent on tenants? In fact, there's a hard monetary calculation underpinning the approach: a fully non-smoking workforce is good for business. One Canadian study has indicated that above-average absenteeism costs C$230 (£103) per smoking employee, while lost productivity through cigarette breaks could equal more than £1000 per smoker a year. Anti-smoking charity Quit says breaks waste 35 million work days a year, at a cost to the country of £3bn.

Cash for quitters
The incentive scheme was the brainchild of Tracey Webb, St Pancras' director of human resources and communications, who thought of it during a routine review of the association's no-smoking policy. The idea has been running on a trial basis for the past six months.

"It's worked really well," Webb says. "There has been a good response; 19 people joined the scheme and 11 of them are about to get their second £100. We've been shocked at how many people have stuck with it – it's costing us a lot more money than we expected." Webb admits to being a smoker herself but, as a director and the scheme's originator, is not eligible to apply.

St Pancras is not the only RSL to put its money where its workers' cigarettes used to be. When Housing Today reported its initiative (HT 5 September, page 19), Irwell Valley Housing Association was quick to point out that it too ran a scheme to help employees quit the habit – one of some 60 staff well-being initiatives it offers.

Under Irwell Valley's scheme, which has been running for two years, you stand to make £300 if you last more than six months without fags. For the RSL, this is all part of being a Gold Service organisation: "It's consistent with our policy of rewarding positive behaviour," says Vanessa Kirkpatrick, a spokesperson for the association.

Irwell Valley's more generous payout has a sting in the tail: if a former smoker lapses, they have to repay the money. As Kirkpatrick says: "The policy is a voluntary agreement and based upon trust and any breach of that trust would naturally be taken seriously." Perhaps this sterner approach is why fewer people at Irwell entered the scheme – just 11 of its 200-odd staff. It might also explain why, to date, only one has cracked and handed back the money.

St Pancras is a little more forgiving. "If you lapse at four months, you don't have to pay the £100 back," Webb says. "This seemed a bit harsh." That's all very well, but how do they know that people aren't cheating?

"We took the view that we would trust our staff," Webb answers. "Treat people like adults and they act like adults."

This said, there are still ways for St Pancras to keep tabs on its quitters. They are interviewed by human resources at the end of each three-month period to see how they are getting on, and their names were published at the outset, ostensibly to give them credit for trying to quit, but also so that people might notice if they light up on the sly.

Taking liberties
Since two-thirds of smokers would like to quit, according to figures from the Office of National Statistics, the incentives at both associations were welcomed by most workers. Jill Ogden works in IT for Irwell Valley. Before taking the £300, she had smoked 15 cigarettes a day for 15 years.

"I had just found out I was pregnant, so it was good timing and a good incentive. Once I'd set my mind to it, it was quite easy. I put the money into an account for my daughter."

The only dissenting voices at St Pancras came from some non-smokers, who complained that the scheme was unfair.

This sentiment, although voiced by a small minority, has provoked discussion about how the trial might be refined when and if it becomes policy. "A suggestion has been made that, instead of an individual getting the money, we should pay it to a charity of their choice," Webb says.

But some people raise notes of caution – even alarm that employers might be taking too close an interest in their workers' private lives. "Our concern is that employers are getting involved in employees' health at a personal level," says Jo Gaffikin, spokesperson for the Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco.

"They may be offering an incentive, but there is an implicit pressure to give up. At work, you want to feel that you're being treated the same as everyone else. To try to influence people's lifestyles is unacceptable; what you do at home should be sacred."

Even ASH raises a note of caution over the incentive scheme. A spokesperson for the charity says: "If the money is for nicotine replacement products, then that's great.

You shouldn't really wander off the health issue into a quick fix."

An alternative route to getting your workers to stub out their habit could be to follow London & Quadrant Housing Trust's approach, which is to offer quitting courses in lunch hours. The courses, run by Quit, consist of five sessions over five weeks.

"Luckily, we've never needed to offer monetary incentives," says Sally Jacobsen, L&Q's human resources director, "but we did notice that when we went non-smoking our sickness rate went down. It's very low now."

Ex-smoker Ogden agrees that the health benefits are even greater than the financial ones. In June, she celebrated her second tobacco-free year and says: "We work on the sixth floor, and I can walk up the stairs now."