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Health and wellbeing in need of some TLC

by Corporate Adviser
December 18, 2014
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The notion of a healthy workplace is not a recent concept, yet while the benefits have been known for some time, businesses in the UK have for the large part failed to implement meaningful wellness policies.

There are many reasons why employers have failed to fully embrace the benefits of wellness among employees and have instead relied on a ‘make do and mend’ mentality rather than a holistic approach to workplace wellness. The main reason why employers in the UK are behind those in the US, for example, is that in the UK employers are not exposed to the traditional “costs” of poor health. These costs are covered by the NHS. The ability to link poor lifestyles not only to healthcare costs, but also to more relevant metrics for employers to encourage them to invest in employee health over the long-term, such as absence, presenteeism, and employee engagement, is missing.

At the heart of the problem lies a fundamental disconnect between the employer and the NHS, which foots the majority of the UK’s healthcare bill.

Equally, it’s easy to understand why a company doesn’t feel the need to invest in an employee’s broader health and wellbeing, when they could feasibly up and leave for the nearest rival at any second. Estimates of average time spent at one organisation vary, but in an increasingly globalised, technology driven and flexible workplace, the idea of a job for life has been firmly left in the 20th century. Investing money in a broader sense of wellbeing, which can ultimately lead to less time off sick, is often seen as waste of money as the benefits accrue over many years, and may be to the benefit of a different employer.

But our research into Britain’s Healthiest Company, conducted with Rand Europe and the University of Cambridge, has revealed that sickness and poor lifestyles cost the UK economy at least £58bn per annum, or nearly 8 per cent of the entire annual UK wage bill. The argument for seeking better employee health does makes financial sense.

But what of PMI? Many firms offer this to senior staff, and for the most part it enables access to professional healthcare quickly and at a fixed cost to the employer. But it is often only provided to top level employees not blue collar workers. There is also an inherent disadvantage in that private healthcare is a P11d benefit, so the employee is taxed on it.

As a consequence, although on the surface it appears a positive step, it’s become apparent that PMI alone is not fit for purpose as a sole way of ensuring workplace health. While it gives employers a way to tick a box to show that they are tackling healthcare challenges, the focus is only on treating sickness when it arises, and not on proactively keeping people healthy. It actually creates a barrier to implementing more effective solutions.

The focus needs to shift to promoting preventative measures. If we can avoid needing to use the healthcare system in the first place, then by definition the workforce will be healthier and the productivity loss reduced. This means businesses need to invest in wellness across their organisations. It’s far better to encourage healthier lifestyles, from exercise to eating and stress management, rather than carry on as normal and then rely on the public or private healthcare system to come to the rescue. The workplace could provide a paradigm shift in changing people’s health behaviours, and should be more effective than leaving employees to their own devices. Our research has shown that positively changing lifestyle habits could cut the £58bn annual cost of lost productivity by 40 per cent – the opportunity is clear for all to see.

This kind of thinking is relatively new, but in an environment where the NHS is facing a funding gap of billions of pounds, a new conversation is needed between advisers, businesses and care providers. If not, businesses will continue to waste resource on treating symptoms. A wellness-based solution benefits all. Employees become healthier and get better value from their insurance policies, whether sick or not; employers realise the gains of more productive and engaged staff. This means society as a whole has a lower healthcare burden and improved overall productivity.

 

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