59 per cent of SME employees in the north of England believed their employer actively looked after their well-being, compared to 88 per cent in the south, indicating a north/south divide, according to research from Legal & General Group Protection.
According to the study, which is part of L&G’s Wellbeing at Work Barometer, employers overestimated the impact of their workplace wellness initiatives. In the north, over two thirds, or 69 per cent, of employers believed their benefits and wellbeing programme had a ‘good’ appeal to all their employees, yet only 38 per cent of employees agreed. In the south, while a gap was still present, it was less significant- 79 per cent of employers compared to 65 per cent of employees.
The L&G Barometer also found that the use of wellbeing benefits among SME employees was much lower in the north, with only one in five, or 19 per cent, of employees claiming to have used workplace benefits. In the south, more than three-fifths of employees, or 65 per cent, reported having used the benefits available to them. Similarly, when it comes to benefit awareness, nearly 24 per cent, said they were completely unaware of the wellbeing workplace benefits available to them, compared to 12 per cent in the south.
Legal & General Group Protection distribution director Colin Fitzgerald says: “The need for workplace wellbeing is universal, yet our research shows that when it comes to wellbeing it appears that the age-old north/south divide is very much present. Employers that don’t have well-being either already embedded or as a priority to address are missing out on new talent as well as impacting the effectiveness of their existing workforce. In an employee’s market – where the demand for talent is fast outstripping supply – this should be of a serious cause for concern for employers.
“Helping address health and wellbeing inequalities does not only make good people and societal sense, but it also makes good business sense, impacting on key outcomes such as absenteeism, presenteeism and productivity.
“Savvy employees are increasingly looking to the ‘S’ – the Social – in ESG, in terms of sustainable and inclusive employee, customer and community practices and helping tackle health inequalities is crucial here. That’s why Legal & General has suggested that health inequality should be a key element of ESG, making it ‘ESHG’. It’s our duty as insurers, along with our intermediary partners, to help our customers get on top of this from the perspective of informing, designing and communicating tailored and purpose-driven benefit and wellbeing programmes.”