Health Sec calls on employers to offer perks to 'help health of nation'

Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock, has urged companies to offer healthy work perks such as bike loans, free fruit and counselling services to encourage employee wellbeing – The Telegraph reports.

The initiative - which was launched on Monday - calls on employers to do more to “help the health of their staff and nation”. Hancock says that it will additionally alleviate squeezed pressures on the NHS if workforces are healthier.

Hancock added in an interview with The Telegraph that firms should up the ante when it comes to helping ill employees return to work. The initiative was inspired by a Cornish firm who implemented a similar employee welllbeing model,which tackled workplace problems through healthy eating and exercise.

Zofia Bajorek, a Research Fellow at the Institute for Employment Studies, says exclusively to HR Grapevine that implementing preventative measures like these are a step in the right direction. She explains: