Three-quarters (75%) of employer respondents believe that organisations should proactively support employees to manage their health and wellbeing, according to research by Axa PPP Healthcare.
Its survey of 1,000 purchasing decision makers also found that 77% of respondents already have a health and wellbeing strategy in place.
The research also found:
- More than half (51%) of respondents believe that mental health will be the biggest challenge to employee health over the next five years.
- 44% of respondents think that obesity and high body mass index will pose the greatest challenge, and 30% believe it will be high blood pressure.
- 46% of respondents cite improved ease of access to preventative health services as the key to better workplace health in the next five years, and 46% point to increased availability of these services.
- One in four (40%) respondents believe that increased availability of reactive health services would improve employee health.
- Around a third (32%) of respondents cite the inability to evaluate the impact of a health and wellbeing strategy as a major challenge to achieving their goals, and 40% name a lack of employee engagement.
- More than a quarter (26%) see inadequate budget as a key challenge, and 21% cite a lack of resources.
Chris Horlick, distribution director at Axa PPP Healthcare, said: “It’s encouraging to see so many businesses acknowledging they have a degree of responsibility for employee health and wellbeing at work and, as a result, implementing strategies to support this.
“However, businesses, and arguably the workplace health services industry as a whole, can struggle to define what holistic health and wellbeing strategies should look like. This can mean that in practice they fail to include measurable objectives, thereby preventing meaningful evaluation of their impact.
“There is growing acknowledgment by employers and policymakers of the importance of preventive health services within a holistic approach to employee health and wellbeing. This includes helping employees maintain good health as well as supporting their care and treatment if they become unwell.”
Learn more about benefits to support employee health and wellbeing at Employee Benefits Live 2016 on 11-12 October at Olympia National