A recent report by Vitality Health Insurance, which surveyed more than 8,500 employees across the UK, found that one in five employees (20%) were suffering from burnout. This leads to the loss of 93 productive days annually. Comparitively, surveyed individuals with symptoms of depression (10%) lost an average of 110 productive days per year.
Meanwhile, respondents with Long Covid lost on average 87 productive days per year, compared with 47 days for employees without symptoms.
To combat lost time, the report highlighted that 80% of surveyed employers are now offering more than 40 separate health and wellbeing benefits, which includes access to physical and mental health workshops and on-site health clinics or gym facilities.
However, employers who offered health and wellbeing benefits to staff have seen decreases in productive days lost, according to Vitality, with an average of 46 productive days lost per year compared with 56 days for employers who don’t offer any benefits to staff.
Neville Koopowitz, chief executive of Vitality, commented: “While some of the factors are a hangover from the pandemic, the data shows that this is just a small piece of the puzzle and it’s far more complex than that.”
“Businesses must look at what they are doing and why. Only by taking a tailored, targeted and informed approach to their employees’ health and wellbeing, can they develop an impactful strategy and bring in the interventions that will make an impact – it’s a definite case of quality and not just quantity.”
The Employee Assistance Programme- quantity vs quality?
Many businesses offer what they believe is comprehensive support via their employee assistance programmes (EAP) believing if they take a broad brush approach something will stick however the EAP still has a low uptake- only an average of 10% and in last months blog we highlighted that the Employee Assistance Professionals Association commented that employers need to be doing more than just rely on their EAP as they were ‘never intended to be the whole solution’.
Colin Barnes, director, UK health solutions – workforce resilience expert at Aon, added:”The scale of the health and wellbeing decline among the UK workforce should be a wake-up call to employers. While the intent and ambition are there, the findings of Britain’s Healthiest Workplace show that this is not translating into results for employees.”
“Businesses should take this as an opportunity to refocus their strategy with data to ensure budgets are spent in the most impactful way – including providing the support that employees need – which ultimately benefits the business too.
We believe P3 Business Care provides support that directly impacts the employee, their family members and your business.
About P3 Business Care
P3 Business Care is a Community Interest Company and social enterprise operating across the UK. Supporting your business on a weekly basis we provide personal and proactive care to your employees and immediate family working in partnership with the company. Our Business Partners visit your business weekly developing trust & relationships so we can identify and address issues before they become crisis, absence, or staff turnover. Read more about our services here
