Our survey, which was carried out in April 2009, received 834 responses from Employee Benefits readers and users of www.employeebenefits.co.uk

Key findings

  • 54% of respondents will be under more pressure to reduce costs and 44% will have to review providers to get a better deal because of the recession.†
  • Improving staff health and welfare is respondents’ top priority (65%), and 55% say their healthcare perks have been successful in achieving this.
  • 18% cited childcare as a major cause of absence and 7% cited work-life balance issues. The prevelance of these as a cause of absence has more than halved since our 2000 research.
  • Employee assistance programmes are the most common employer-paid perk in the public sector (60%), and private medical insurance is top (70%) in the private sector.
  • Just 38% of employers record the cost of sickness absence.†
  • 58% of respondents spend 2% or less of their payroll budget on healthcare benefits.
  • 72% believe individuals should take responsibility for their own wellbeing; 54% think employers should be responsible for promoting this to staff.

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    Click on the links below for more sections:

    Research: attitudes to health and wellbeing
    Research: the package
    Research: what impact health and wellbeing perks have on sickness absence
    Research: strategies to deal with employee stress
    Research: healthcare costs and calculating return on investment
    Research: how employers deal with legislation change

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