In the 20-plus years I have been working in employee benefits, I have seen a fundamental shift in employers’ approaches to their workforces’ health and wellbeing. However, despite a growing focus on this over the years for many employers, the UK is experiencing a number of workplace health challenges, with more than one in five working age people now out of work and not looking for work.
And this issue is growing; the number of people out of work due to ill-health has increased by 800,000 since 2019 and is set to rise by a further 600,000 by 2030. This inevitably has a financial impact on employers, with an organisation losing, on average, £120 in profit per day and high costs to replace absent employees.
The Keep Britain Working Review into workplace health provision, led by former John Lewis chairman Charlie Mayfield, which was published earlier this week, has recognised the unique position employers are in to support a preventative approach to ill-health, for example, “by encouraging safe and early conversations about emerging health issues, making reasonable adjustments, supporting people swiftly, and offering flexibility for treatment and phased returns”.
However, while Mayfield recognised the work and investment many employers currently make into the healthcare and wellbeing of their workforces, he acknowledged that this is often against the backdrop of a fragmented and unsupported system.
Under the measures outlined in this week’s report, employers, employees and government would work much more closely to reset the system and help many more people remain in work, recover faster and, ultimately, live healthier, more secure lives.
Sixty major employers have already signed up to be vanguard employers to help drive reform forward. This will involve establishing a Healthy Working Lifecycle, which will develop into a certified standard, creating a Workplace Health Intelligence Unit, and building and embedding a new model of workplace health provision.
Ultimately, this work is intended to bring about a shift from a model where health at work is largely left to individuals and the NHS to manage, to one where it is considered a shared responsibility between employers, employees and health services.
Initial reactions to the review have been largely positive. While time will tell how successful these measures will be, with a planned implementation period of up to seven years, this could be the reset on health that the UK so desperately needs.
Debbie Lovewell-Tuck
Editor
@DebbieLovewell
