In major confirmation that health and wellbeing support is a huge benefit to businesses as well as their workforce, research1 from Everywhen reveals today that 40% of employers state that the health and wellbeing support they offer boosts productivity. Indeed, increases in productivity, staff retention, and staff loyalty were the top three advantages to companies offering health and wellbeing support, with increases in engagement and reduced absence also ranking high.
The main advantages to the company in offering health and wellbeing support to staff:
Boosts productivity 40%
It increases staff retention 39%
It increases staff loyalty 38%
It’s the right thing to do for our staff’s health and wellbeing 35%
It aligns with our culture and values 34%
It increases engagement 29%
Reduces absenteeism 28%
Support for recruitment 20%
It allows us to meet legislative minimum requirements 18%
It reduces our costs and expenses 16%
N/A we do not see any advantages to offering health and wellbeing support 9%
David Williams, head of group risk for Everywhen, says: “There are so many compelling business reasons for employers to offer health and wellbeing benefits. It’s great that employers are seeing advantages across the business in terms of productivity, recruitment and retention, loyalty and engagement, and more. But more companies should be seeing these advantages.”
Businesses that are not realising the advantages of the health and wellbeing support they offer would be wise to take expert advice on how they could benefit. It may be the case that they are not offering the right support for their workforce demographic. They may need to find new ways to communicate the benefits on offer, and different ways to encourage employees to use them. It’s important to ask employees what they want, offer a wide range of benefits, and assess what’s used.
Many businesses may not be measuring utilisation and outcomes effectively, which can make it harder for them to see the value they're getting from their health and wellbeing benefits. Analysing which benefits are being used, and which ones are working, and not working, will help employers to make decisions about future provision.
Wellbeing support reduces business costs
It’s good to see that 16% of employers find a direct link between providing health and wellbeing support and reduced costs and expenses. Indeed, the vast majority of advantages identified in providing health and wellbeing benefits are likely to result in reduced costs. For instance, increased productivity, improved staff retention, easier recruitment and reduced absenteeism, all help the bottom line.
It’s particularly positive that 28% of employers report seeing reduced absenteeism as a result of offering health and wellbeing support. This is exactly what health and wellbeing benefits should be doing – preventing ill health and absence in the first place, and helping to get people back to work sooner after illness.
With 35% of employers believing offering health and wellbeing support is the right thing to do for their employees, and 34% saying it aligns with the company’s culture and values, it’s great that employers see business benefits beyond purely financial.
David Williams concludes: “Things are definitely going in the right direction but ALL businesses and their employees should be benefiting from the health and wellbeing support on offer. If they are not, it would be wise to take advice on what changes could be made to the offering and how best to communicate the provision and boost engagement.”
