News – Page 130
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Kärcher encourages cash plan take up
EXCLUSIVE: Kärcher UK has issued new communications to its 230 employees to remind them about their health cash plan.Between 1 July 2012 and 1 February 2013, 97 employees at the cleaning equipment manufacturer made a claim through the plan.As a result, Kärcher UK wanted to ensure its employees were taking ...
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Most employers proactively record staff absence
The majority (82%) of respondents proactively record, monitor and manage employee absence, according to research by industry body Group Risk Development (Grid).Its Group risk employer research study, which surveyed 500 organisations, found that 27% of respondents already publish their absence statistics in their annual report and accounts, while 48% are ...
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Federation of Small Businesses offers members health services
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has signed a three-year contract with Jelf Employee Benefits to offer its 200,000 member organisations access to discounted health and wellbeing services.The FSB’s small business owners, managers and their employees will have access to lower premiums for private medical insurance (PMI), hospital treatment insurance ...
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Informa runs global fitness challenge
EXCLUSIVE: Informa has held a fitness challenge for its 8,000 employees globally to encourage staff health and wellbeing.February Fitness saw 100 teams from Australia, Switzerland, Singapore, the UK and the US cycle, swim, run or walk to support their favourite charity.Employees covered 50,000 miles, with three winning teams each receiving ...
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Alice Sinclair: Should employers encourage staff to take up fitness activities?
Participation in fitness activities can also relieve stress and lead to reduced absenteeism, better employee engagement and an improved employer profile.At the Institute for Employment Studies, we have reviewed a variety of success stories where employers have set up fitness classes, organised regular walks, subsidised gym membership and encouraged staff ...
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Lisa Purcell: Should employers encourage staff to take up fitness activities?
However, we are likely to be exhausted by stress and mental strain rather than by physical activity.The British Heart Foundation (BHF) research, carried out in December 2012 with YouGov, found that nearly one in five workers (18%) do absolutely no physical activity during working hours and only 27% manage 20 ...
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Sally Gunnell: Should employers encourage staff to take up fitness activities?
The only question is: which are the best schemes for improving engagement and making a positive impact on absenteeism, presenteeism and productivity?Fitness is coming to the fore in the prevention and treatment of many health and wellbeing problems, just as public and medical opinion is converging on more holistic approaches.The ...
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Pam Whelan: How to create a dental plan
Dental is one of the fastest-growing employee benefits, so it is important for employers to keep up to date with the latest dental news. This will help them provide the best market knowledge and understanding to their staff.According to a Denplan/YouGov online survey of 4,116 UK adults, conducted in January ...
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Alison Green: How to manage PMI costs
The wide range of private medical insurance (PMI) products available means there has never been more, or better, ways of managing their cost.There are also myriad ways employers can manage these costs, from introducing an excess, so staff pay, say, the first £200 towards their treatment, to setting an annual ...
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Mark Sharpe: How to manage musculoskeletal disorders
A reduction in healthcare spend, coupled with an improvement in employee health, is always beneficial to a business. But what is the best approach, particularly for musculoskeletal disorders, which are one of the largest contributors to those costs?Employers should first identify the cause of the disorders and the cost of ...
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Buyer's guide to corporate eyecare 2013
Corporate eyecare benefits are popular with employees, enabling them to look after the health of their eyes with regular examinations. For an employer, the perk helps to meet some of its health and safety obligations.Under the 1992 Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations, employers have a legal obligation to ...
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David Castling: Managing sickness absence effectively
Employers seeking to limit and manage employee absence require a clearly defined absence policy, which strikes a balance between supporting the majority of staff whose absence is genuine and preventing those who might seek to exploit the business. This policy needs to align with an organisation’s business objectives and define ...
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Paul Shires: Business benefits of an effective health strategy
With the National Health Service (NHS) under pressure to save £20 billion by 2015 and sickness absence costing UK employers about £9 billion a year, employers are under great pressure to ensure the right strategy is in place to manage employee health and wellbeing. But what are the benefits for ...
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Vanessa Sallows: Group risk benefits help sick staff return to work
Group risk benefits must be used in conjunction with a comprehensive and tailored strategy to help employees return to work.Returning to work can be daunting for an employee who has been absent for a long time. Individuals often have concerns about the information they share with colleagues about the cause ...
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Joy Reymond: How to deal with cancer
Four in 10 people will develop cancer at some point in their life, but it remains a difficult subject to talk about, especially in the workplace.On the upside, more people are living with cancer than ever before, thanks to better awareness of diet and fitness and advances in treatments. Those ...
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WPA launches medical diagnostic cover
Health plan provider WPA has launched a service to help cover employees’ private consultations and diagnostic procedures.Swift Diagnosis has been designed to enhance WPA’s existing cash plan product, NHS Top-Up, and aims to fill the gap between GP and in-patient care.The scheme, which is avaliable from 1 April 2013, also ...
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Employer tax relief introduced on health benefits
Budget 2013: The government is to introduce tax relief on up to £500-worth of health-related interventions funded by employers in a move designed to tackle long-term sickness absence and help staff return to work.As announced in January 2013, it is creating the health and work assessment and advisory service, targeted ...
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Work Foundation calls on government to help staff with cancer
The government should do more to support people with long-term conditions, such as cancer, in returning to work, according to the Work Foundation. Its Returning to work: Cancer survivors and the health and work assessment and advisory service report paper has been written in partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support.The organisations ...
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NHS trusts spent £1bn on sick pay in three years
NHS trusts in England spent more than £1 billion on sick pay over the past three years, according to research by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP).The research, Fit enough for patients? An audit of workplace health and wellbeing services for NHS staff, looked at documents for 163 trusts, which ...
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BBC's sickness absence not due to stress
The BBC has disclosed that only 0.18% of working days were recorded as lost due to stress, anxiety and/or depression between April 2011 and March 2012.Following a Freedom of Information request by LondonlovesBusiness.com, the Daily Mail reported that the broadcaster spent £130,000 on stress counselling for staff in 2012.A spokesperson ...