Employers should not just consider the costs of offering health and wellbeing support to staff, but consider the long-term benefits of doing so, a specialist has claimed.
Debra Clark, head of wellbeing at Towergate Health and Protection, said while the expense of offering health and wellbeing support was offputting for many British companies, the importance of using it to retain key personnel and improve staff loyalty should not be ignored.
She said: "Looking after employees must be a priority for 2024 and it is short-sighted to minimise health and wellbeing support to save costs.
"While costs were the main obstacle stated by companies, offering health and wellbeing support does not need to be expensive, there are many low-cost and value-for-money options now available."
Her comments came as THP unveiled research among 500 British company bosses, which showed 33 per cent of respondents citing high costs as the greatest barrier to offering better health and wellbeing support.
The next main barrier to offering better health and wellbeing support was having too few employees to make it worthwhile or cost effective, stated by one-fifth (20 per cent) of companies.
But Clark said it would be more important for smaller companies to have robust support, as absences can have an even bigger impact, with fewer colleagues to cover the workload.
She said it was also worth noting that health and wellbeing options were available to support every size of company.
What is the greatest barrier to you offering better health & wellbeing support to your employees?
High costs: 33%
Administration costs: 21%
There are too few employees to make it worthwhile or cost effective: 20%
Administration time: 19%
Lack of interest from employees: 16%
Difficulty in making health & wellbeing support equally accessible to all employees, e.g. home workers: 16%
We’re not sure how to provide better support: 15%
Difficulty in effectively communicating the available health & wellbeing support to all employees: 13%
Getting approval from a global parent company: 12%
There are too many employees to provide everyone with better support: 11%.
(Top 10 responses. Respondents could fill in more than one option)
But the advantages could be many, Clark said. These ranged from improving staff retention and loyalty, through to improvements in productivity levels and increasing engagement with the workforce.
What are the main advantages to your company in offering health and wellbeing support to your staff?
It increases staff loyalty: 38%
Increases staff retention: 35%
Boosts productivity: 34%
It’s the right thing to do: 34%
It increases engagement: 30%
It aligns with our culture and values: 26%
Reduces absenteeism: 25%
Support for recruitment: 20%
We do not see any advantages to offering health and wellbeing support: 9%.
"While there are of course cost and time implications involved in offering the best possible, and most appropriate, health and wellbeing support programme, it is important that these are seen in context with the huge advantages to be gained,” she added.
