Three-quarters of respondents do not identify and manage known employee health risks, according to research by Aon.
However, its annual Benefits and trends survey also found that respondents want to understand the impact of employee health risks on business performance and insurance premiums, with half of respondents wanting to get to grips with the impact of health risks in the workplace.
The majority of respondents said premium costs are a key consideration and just under half feel under pressure to make short-term savings.
Almost all respondents (97%) said premium costs were either very important (56%) or important (41%).
The survey also found that there has been an increase in the number of respondents offering healthcare benefits on an employee-paid basis.
Just under half of respondents (49%) feel under pressure to make short-term savings on costs and more than two-thirds (64%) think that their business would value a five-year budget projection for healthcare spend.
Predictability of costs is equally important with 98% agreeing that premium sustainability and stability are important.
However, more than half (54%) would not when be prepared to offer employees less flexibility or choice in order to maintain sustainable premiums. Similarly, 70% would not be prepared to reduce benefits to maintain and reduce premium costs.
Stephen Hackett, head of health and risk at Aon Employee Benefits, said: “We know that three major health risks, mental health, musculoskeletal and cancer, are enormous problems for organisations, let alone the individuals who experience them.
“Serious illness can hit an employer hard, potentially impacting recruitment, retention, productivity, motivation, health programmes and, of course, rising insurance costs. HR has access to powerful data that can help employees and employers.
“Combining knowledge across healthcare and risk also enables businesses to control costs and ensure value added benefits are not duplicated, something we see happening time and time again.”