Healthy employees make a healthy business

How many times this month have you worked over your lunch? Or stayed late? Or checked your emails at the weekend? The answer is probably more times than you’d care to admit.

We’re working in a world that is ‘always on’, and the lines between work and life are becoming increasingly blurred. For most, more time at work means longer periods of inactivity, increased stress, and less physical activity. National figures around obesity and stress related critical illness paint a bleak picture of worsening national health. And this is a big problem for businesses. Absenteeism has an immediate impact on business productivity, but general poor-health among employees and presenteeism also takes its toll over the longer term.

It’s for these reasons that we’re seeing employee health rising at pace up the business agenda. For the first time our annual UK Employee Benefits Watch 2016/17 research revealed that employers are ranking ‘improving employee wellness’ as one of the top three positive impacts they’d like to see from their benefits programmes.

The problem is, many employers are struggling to support employees in making better lifestyle choices – continuing to rely on traditional, structured benefits designed to treat rather than prevent illness. For inspiration, HR and reward teams should be looking to the small group of forerunners in this space; those organisations taking a truly transformational approach to workforce wellbeing by offering employees the flexibility to choose the benefits that will keep them healthy and happy.