What to consider when creating a healthcare strategy

’The right thing to do’ is a key motivator for employers in offering health support, according to Towergate Employee Benefits’ August 2025 research. Yet, there can be a difference between offering something because it is perceived as the right thing to do and providing benefits that are the right fit for an organisation and its workforce. So, with this in mind, what should employers consider when setting out a healthcare strategy?

Creating an effective strategy

To create an effective healthcare strategy, employers should start by deciding what they want it to address or by exploring how they might achieve a particular goal. For instance, they may want to improve absence levels, offer dedicated support for women or musculoskeletal assistance if their workforce is largely sedentary or in specific industries, such as transport. 

They should also ask employees what they want and listen to responses, as well as determine what they want to do with the strategy and why it is important to the business.

Organisations should also look at what they need the benefits to do and how these would help staff, says Debra Clark, head of wellbeing at Towergate Employee Benefits. “Employers should say ‘you said, we did’, so even if they have not addressed everything, staff feel listened to,” she explains. ”There should be open transparency about why decisions have been made.”

Pulse or annual surveys with space for employees to give opinions can generate robust data, along with current benefits utilisation, absence figures and turnover levels. It is also key to understand the needs of each demographic within the workforce.

Jeanette Cook, principal strategic consultant at Aon, says: “There are anonymised survey tools that measure employees’ response speed, which highlights if there are things they are not saying.”

Employers should also consider their organisational values and culture when creating healthcare strategies, incorporating their goals in areas such as recruitment and attraction, reducing absenteeism and improving productivity.

Sharon Shier, chief customer officer at WPA, says: “A healthcare strategy should also consider budgets or financial constraints. Health risk assessments, either online or in person with a screening firm or nurse practitioner, can offer valuable insights so employers know what to focus their budget on.”

Key benefits to consider

When deciding which benefits to include in a healthcare strategy, employers should start by deciding what they want to achieve. For example, health screening might be higher up agendas for older employees, whereas Generation Z staff may be more interested in mental wellbeing support. 

Employers could also look at easy-to-achieve, low-cost initiatives that address employees’ needs. These could include flexible-working policies, and programmes that promote healthy eating, improve sleep and physical activities, such as linking with local gyms or cycling to work. Insurance providers can also tailor premiums to help soften some of the cost impact.

“Workforce demographics can help employers to understand potential support to offer, such as women’s health benefits, private medical insurance (PMI) to encourage prevention, and health screening and assessments,” says Shier.

Other areas to consider are heart, cancer and neurodiversity assistance to combat NHS backlogs, as well as mental health, musculoskeletal and prevention support. Personalising benefits and flexibility within options are useful too. Employers could also look at covering employees’ family members if they have the budget, enabling staff to purchase individual or top-up cover.

“Some group risk products come with early intervention and quick rehabilitation support,” says Clark. ”Employers should look at health cash plans, employee assistance programmes (EAPs), occupational health and voluntary benefits, the latter of which offers products employees pay for at a discounted price.”

Measuring the effectiveness

Employers should measure strategies on a regular, focused basis. This will reveal specific results and any impact on their data. They should also repeat annual health assessments and look at strategies each year to reassess what staff use to ensure benefits are valued.

“Ways of measuring the effectiveness of a strategy are EAP and absence data, employee listening metrics, and PMI and risk claims data,” explains Cook. “When employers run events, they should do a post attendance survey with three questions: did it meet needs, did it address concerns, and whether employees will change anything moving forward.”

Employers can also look at productivity, performance and tenure levels to see if staff feel more valued.

“If employers want to improve presenteeism or absenteeism, they should look at sickness, absence and claims data, and if they are doing it because it’s the right thing to do, they should look at retention and turnover rates,” says Clark.

Health and wellbeing champions can provide feedback quicker than waiting for survey results, adds Shier.

“They can then be used as strategy advocates,” she says. ”This helps to tailor benefits to ensure staff get the best value they possibly can.”

Promoting a strategy

Newsletters, intranet messages and benefits fairs are common ways of promoting strategies. However, each employee may prefer different methods of communication, so employers should adapt messages according to preferences based on factors such as generation, role and location. For example, rather than always using email communication, employers could try short videos throughout the year to try something new.

“Employers could use employees’ lived experiences and stories to bring the benefits to life,” says Clark. “They can share what a beneficial part of the policy for them was, or if something was picked up during a health screening.”

Organisations could also use webinars, recording these for shift workers who are unable to participate, and storing on an easily accessible central hub. Online benefits platforms can host benefits information libraries, while workplace and electronic posters on tablets are also useful.

“Employers should engage leaders with healthcare benefits at meetings and empower them to signpost support to their teams,” says Shier. ”They can also work with their health insurers as they have a wealth of materials.”

Taking the time to create an effective healthcare strategy that addresses a workforce’s needs can pay dividends in terms of lower absence rates and employees’ overall experience at an organisation.