Paul Schreier, Chief Executive of Simplyhealth, explains how affordable employee health plans can revolutionise employers’ role in workplace health support.
With a tough economic climate and national insurance increases, rising costs have forced difficult employer decisions – including around employee benefits offerings.
Yet there is still a critical case for many benefits – and with 2.8 million people currently out of work due to long-term sickness and NHS waiting lists at nearly 7.5 million, healthcare is an obvious example.
The government’s recent Keep Britain Working review revealed that work-limiting illnesses are prevalent across all age groups, demonstrating that not only do employers need to offer health benefits, but must ensure they are available to their whole workforce; keeping workers well and ensuring a productive and healthy working environment.
Employer’s responsibility
The external pressure on businesses is clear from data we published earlier this year, which found that seven in ten (71%) businesses said they might have to make a trade-off between providing employees with health benefits and other priorities.
Despite this pressure, the data also revealed that in the wake of the NHS crisis, a quarter of businesses (73%) say they feel greater responsibility to look after the health of their employees, an increase of 3% from last year.
Beyond a moral responsibility, the data also showed that employers recognised the value of providing health benefits for a more productive workforce – with almost half (46%) of employers noting employees took fewer sick days as a result.
Across all employers (regardless of whether they offered healthcare or not), wider advantages of health benefits such as improved employee health and wellbeing (61%), morale and staff happiness (58%) and employee retention (57%), were recognised.
Yet costs remain a major hurdle. While the majority of businesses feel a responsibility to provide healthcare, three-quarters (72%) of businesses want to offer health benefits but worry it’s too expensive.
There is clearly an urgent need for accessible, affordable workplace health support to help businesses meet the financial pressure from external factors, while doing the right thing in supporting employees access the healthcare they need in the background of a struggling health system.
Access to more affordable healthcare options
The economic strain faced by so many employers is unfortunately only likely to worsen. In early March, getting on for a third of trading businesses reported that economic uncertainty was having an impact on their turnover.
In order for businesses to offer accessible health benefits to their employees, they need to be offered affordable options.
Minor illnesses are the leading cause of employee absences, causing almost a quarter (23%) of employees to take time off, followed by muscle joint pain (12%) and mental health at 11%. To make a real difference to employees, these new services need to include access to a 24/7 virtual GP, physio and mental health support, to help address the common minor illnesses, joint pain and mental health issues that can be easily remedied to get people back into work.
Not all available services are created equal and, with more working-age people self-reporting long-term health conditions, it is essential that workplaces look for services that will cover pre-existing long-term conditions for the benefits to be felt across the business, and ensure they deliver on the promise of keeping employees in work.
We also know that many businesses are worried about duplicating health benefits, services therefore need to be tailored to address the specific concerns of the workforce. By identifying a provider that can support a one-stop shop of healthcare solutions, employers can rest easy knowing their investment is protected, only paying for the services most needed by their employees.
Multiple external pressures create one of the most challenging landscapes in many years to operate a business, and ensuring employees are healthy, at work, and productive is one element that employers can influence. However, those economic strains are affecting the affordability of healthcare benefits. Employers need options that meet the needs of their staff without breaking the bank so that their employees stay healthy and, importantly, days lost to sickness are minimised.
