There are many tools at the government’s disposal to reduce ill health in the workplace, writes Dr Robin Clark, medical director for Bupa Global, India and UK Insurance. The private healthcare sector is already harnessing many of them.
Poor health among working-age people costs the UK economy £150 billion a year, equivalent to 7% of gross domestic product (GDP). That’s why the government has undertaken an independent review into what employers can do to help tackle poor health in their workforces.
The Keep Britain Working Review is being led by former John Lewis chair Charlie Mayfield and is due to report in the autumn. Its purpose is to explore how employers and government can help more people from falling out of work due to poor health, as well as re-entering the workforce. It follows on from the government’s recent white paper on the same subject in which it expressed a long-term aim of achieving an 80% employment rate.
Bupa’s experience
Workplace health is key to economic growth, holding significant value in helping to prevent ill health in the workplace, driving productivity and attracting and retaining talent. As the leading provider of healthcare services to businesses across the UK, from FTSE100 organisations to small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), at Bupa we know that keeping workforces healthy and in work is a primary concern for employers.
For many employers, health insurance is the simplest and most effective way to put in place a broad package of health and wellbeing support for their people. It is easy to set up and provides a flexible funding mechanism for employers to deliver the mix of services that their people need.
Association of British Insurers’ figures show that 1.8 million people accessed healthcare through either health or protection insurance in 2022, and of those, three-quarters (1.3 million) relied on workplace-provided schemes to do so.
Health insurance delivers an immediate impact – providing faster access to diagnosis and treatment, reducing absenteeism and improving productivity. In a typical year, in a company of 1,000 people, Bupa insurance will cover treatment for 236 people, including 27 for mental health, 118 for musculoskeletal issues, and 28 for cancer and heart disease.
Mental health support is an area where we’ve seen increasing demand from our health insurance customers. There has been a 20% increase in those claiming for mental health each year since 2020, and an analysis of 58,000 Bupa health assessments showed that 44% of people were at risk of poor mental health.
The cost of poor mental health is calculated to be £300 billion a year in England alone, and £51 billion of this is the cost to employers for employees struggling with their mental health.
Women’s health is another area that is important to our corporate clients. Women can grapple with a diverse range of health concerns which can impact their health at home and in the workplace, including period and menopause symptoms.
Research carried out by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) in 2021 found that six in ten working women experiencing menopause said it negatively impacted them at work. Bupa research from 2019 found that almost a million women had left the workplace due to menopause symptoms.
Menopausal women are the fastest-growing demographic in the workplace, but the reality is that many are struggling to manage the psychological and physiological changes their bodies are going through.
We developed our Menopause Plan which offers women personalised care to manage their symptoms. We also offer a menopause-specific helpline for our customers, and a women’s health hub, providing nearly 83,000 people with free information about areas such as the menopause.
Around 1,800 women have used the Menopause Plan and they report over a 60% reduction in the majority of severe or very severe symptoms between initial and follow-up appointments.
Other ways in which menopause can be tackled in the workplace include training for managers so they are up to speed on how people going through it can be affected, menopause champions in the workplace and publicising any menopause support offered.
Research we carried out earlier this year highlighted a concerning rise in addiction in the workplace with just over one in three employees surveyed admitting to substance use or addictive behaviour or witnessing it during work hours. It also revealed that more than half of UK employees surveyed (57%) have struggled with some form of addiction.
For those who have battled addiction, stress is reported to be a major driver, as almost half of employees surveyed (48%) say they’ve turned to addictive behaviours as a way to cope with professional stress, while 46% cite work-related pressure as a contributing factor.
Help is at hand though, employer-provided health benefits including Bupa’s mental health cover which offers direct access to specialists without the need for a GP referral. This ensures quicker intervention and ongoing support, crucial for managing long-term conditions like addiction.
Health assessments are also important in providing early detection of potential health problems and are a key measure in preventive healthcare. By identifying risk factors and health concerns, people can take proactive measures to prevent the onset of diseases. Regular assessments can lead to healthier lifestyles and improved health outcomes. Bupa research in 2022 showed that 85% of people changed their habits for the better after their health assessment.
A real impact
Our experience shows that by working with employers, we can make a real impact on the health of the nation. Key to achieving this is making sure that all workplaces take steps to improve the health of their workforce. The government needs to find a way to incentivise employers to treat the health and wellbeing of their employees as a duty of care, in the same way as health and safety.
