Need to know
- Seven in 10 organisations currently have, or are in the process of implementing, a wellbeing strategy, according to the UK workplace wellbeing index by Barnett Waddingham, published in May 2017.
- Data, including management information, benefits claims, absence data, advanced behavioural data and employee engagement survey results, can be used to create and benchmark a wellbeing profile.
- Employee benefits providers and consultants hold information such as healthcare claims data and surveys that employers can use to benchmark their wellbeing profile.
Seven in 10 (71%) organisations currently have, or are in the process of implementing, a wellbeing strategy, according to the UK workplace wellbeing index by Barnett Waddingham, published in May 2017, and almost all (96%) believe that wellbeing is important to their organisation. However, six in 10 (60%) consider their employee wellbeing levels to be moderate to very low.
The research found that the biggest barriers to promoting wellbeing were thought to be a lack of resources, expertise and cost. Meanwhile, the key to a successful strategy was seen to be effective use of data to ensure wellbeing initiatives met the needs of the workforce. The top five most widely offered wellbeing benefits were flexible working or home working, carer support, health assessments, line-manager training, and cancer screening.
Having a strong wellbeing strategy in place shows that an organisation cares about its employees and is willing to invest in them, says Laura Matthews, wellbeing consultant at Barnett Waddingham. “Employers should recognise that having a strategy that supports and addresses employee wellbeing will lead to a happier and healthier workforce, which, in turn, leads to increased productivity,” she adds.
Employee wellbeing dataThe wellbeing market is, however, currently inundated with surveys and assessments when, ultimately, employers should be looking at their ‘real’ data. “Real data comes from [items such as] absence records and claims experience, and gives employers an all-rounded snapshot of the workforce, enabling them to recognise trends and hotspots,” explains Matthews.
Health and wellbeing has risen to the top of the corporate agenda in recent years and moved from a peripheral task to a key component of modern strategy, says Mark Witte, principal at Aon Employee Benefits. Mental health, in particular, has come to the forefront in other areas of business too, including politics. “The general election campaign set mental health as a focal point of all major party leaders' policy statements,” says Witte.
There is also a tangible link between wellbeing and productivity, says Shaun Subel, strategy director at VitalityHealth. “Our research found that employers are losing on average 27.5 days of productive time per employee each year as staff take time off sick and also underperform in the workplace as a result of ill-health,” he says. “This is equivalent to each worker losing more than an entire working month of productive time annually.”
The Britain’s healthiest workplace study, conducted in 2016 by VitalityHealth, the University of Cambridge, Rand Europe and Mercer, also estimates that the combination of this costs the UK economy £73 billion a year in lost productivity.
Benchmark employee wellbeingSo how can employers benchmark the health and wellbeing of their staff effectively, both internally and externally? “The best wellbeing campaigns will be founded upon sound analysis and an understanding of the firm's demographic,” says Witte. “Underpinning this will be an understanding of how data can help enhance this strategy. Not only in helping to understand risk and align resources effectively, but also in enabling an employer to monitor performance and measure impact, and, in turn, use this data to help drive continual improvement.”
In order to best understand which data streams will be most useful, employers must consider what they want to achieve, says Witte. “Do they want to improve benefits programmes? Reduce costs? Target absence or presenteeism? Improve health? Highlight critical issues to the business? Demonstrate success? Once the end objective is clear, the search can begin for data sets that help support this aim.”
Records on management information and benefits claims such as private medical insurance (PMI) or health screening, absence data, advanced behavioural data through schemes such as ‘know your numbers’ or health apps, and employee engagement surveys should all be factored in. “All of these can provide a compelling story and set the benchmarks to monitor ongoing performance,” says Witte. “Using [an employer’s] own data to define [its] starting point, agreeing which metrics will mean the most to [its] business and then tracking performance against these metrics give an employer the best chance of understanding the true effectiveness of [its] wellbeing strategy.”
Some benchmarks are already established, such as absence statistics from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) or the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Alternatively, healthcare providers may be able to provide claims data, while employee benefits consultants can provide reports and surveys to benchmark against year on year.
A number of studies have been produced over the years to attempt to try and quantify the impact of health and wellbeing on productivity, although most of these have focused on the impact of employee absence rather than the underlying behaviours a wellbeing strategy should target, says Witte. “Many providers will proclaim tangible and measurable return on investment for employers adopting their services and while this will make for interesting debate, the most meaningful metrics are those [an employer] sets [itself],” he adds.
Financial wellbeing should also be factored into the equation. The CIPD/Close Brothers Financial wellbeing: the employee view research, published in January 2017, found that one in four employees reported that poor financial wellbeing had impacted on their performance at work. Charles Cotton, performance and reward adviser at the CIPD, says: “Our survey findings are backed up by the research cited in the CIPD report, Employee financial wellbeing: why it’s important, [also published in January 2017], which finds clear evidence that low financial wellbeing is associated with higher staff absence and stress, poorer employee mental health, performance, and that it affects decision-making and focus.”Encouragingly, employers are making great progress in tackling work-related health and wellbeing, and this does not have to cost the earth, according to Emma Mamo, head of workplace wellbeing at Mind. As she explains: “Wellbeing initiatives needn’t be large or expensive, and those that do have a cost attached, such as subsidised gym membership and employee assistance programmes (EAPs), actually save money in the long run.”
Volvo keeps track of employees’ health and wellbeing through workplace study
Global car manufacturer Volvo participated in Britain’s Healthiest Workplace study, run by VitalityHealth, in 2016. Volvo used its senior management team to promote the benefits of regular health checks, improvements to diet, and increased physical activity levels.
It achieved this through a combination of wellness days to provide key health and wellbeing insights, charity and challenge days, and family-orientated activities for employees and their children.
Volvo also has a separate health and wellness budget and an Employee Motivation Team (EMT) to drive engagement in health and wellbeing.
Its health and wellbeing strategy has produced significant results. For example, around 35% more employees have started to use activity trackers in the last three years. As a result, in 2015, this helped to produce a 9% reduction in the number of employees whose health was at risk due to inadequate levels of physical activity, as well as a 4% reduction in those classified as overweight or obese.
This increase in engagement is also having a positive impact on several key corporate objectives: absenteeism rates have reached historic lows and staff retention rates have reached all-time highs.
Simon Eade, HR manager at Volvo Cars UK, says: “Our core strength comes from our people and it is our Volvo Cars culture that unites us. This culture, this open mind, this care for each other, is our competitive edge. We work with health and safety as a part of our Volvo Cars culture. As a human-centric company, we aim to offer a safe and healthy workplace, and a work-life balance.”
