A survey of UK employers has found that bosses concern themselves more with issues such as economic uncertainty, financial impacts, and changes in technology, more than they do employee well being and health.

A survey of UK employers has found that bosses concern themselves more with issues such as economic uncertainty, financial impacts, and changes in technology, more than they do employee well being and health.

This is a worrying find, with the survey of 500 financial decision makers ranking employee issues such as absence and health, only sixth in their list of priorities. With employee absence costing the UK economy £18bn a year, employers clearly need to do more to support absence management.

The idea of taking care of your people is hardly a new one, employers around the globe are increasingly investing in their workforce physical and mental well being. However a study by Gallup showed that there is still a long way to go as business still lose up to $550 billion a year due to poor employee engagement.

Almost all research in this area points to employees basic health as a key indicator of how engaged and productive they will be on the job. Indeed it makes sense that a healthy and happy employee should perform much better than someone in poor physical/mental health. Seems straight forward enough and yet encouraging healthy habits such as exercising and eating healthily is still largely ignored by many employers!

Progressive employers like Virgin look to gain a competitive advantage by taking care of their employees not just at work; supplying free healthy lunches, but outside of it too with subsidies on gym memberships and health assessments!

In the insurance world providers like Vitality are helping employers invest in their workforce well being. Therefore group private medical insurance schemes can provide a number of healthy living incentives, not only to the employees covered on the scheme but the entire workforce!

The benefits to employees health and well being include:

• Discounts on gym memberships and sports equipment
• Money back on healthy food
• A Vitality health-check day – testing blood pressure, BMI, Glucose & Cholesterol levels. This will highlight areas of concern before they lead to poor productivity or illness.
• Cardiovascular fitness tests with prizes
• Optional workshops with vitality at work team around healthy living and improving general health.
• Free cinema tickets for employees that engage

In conclusion if you are interested in supporting your staff either through health or life insurance get in touch with us on : 0800 024 8685