The retail industry has ranked highest for supporting employee wellness in the UK.
A study by Until found that the financial services and higher education sectors came second and third respectively.
The flexible wellness workspace provider’s Workplace Wellbeing Index judged companies in each industry based on criteria including the provision of on-site gyms, number of wellness-related benefits, gym discounts or subscriptions, cycle-to-work schemes, access to personal training (PT), and Glassdoor review scores.
Employees in the retail sector were discovered to have multiple wellness benefits, with the Co-op found to be the only business that fulfilled all six wellbeing criteria. The analysis revealed that, when looking at company career pages, no other workplace in any sector provided access to PT services.
Financial services had the biggest gym discount score compared to other industries, with a high number of on-site gyms and wellbeing benefits available to employees.
Capital One and Santander were revealed to be the best in the sector for employee wellbeing provisions, promoting good health with offering access to gym discounts, on-site gyms and cycle-to-work schemes.
The study showed that the higher education sector had the highest overall score for on-site gyms largely due to university campus facilities, such as those provided by the University of Edinburgh and Coventry University.
The tech industry ranked fourth on the list, followed by the professional services, manufacturing, food and beverage, utilities and healthcare sectors. Logistics completed the top 10 for wellbeing provisions at work.
Commenting on the research, Until co-founder Dan Chappell said: “Corporate wellbeing is still far behind where it needs to be. With increasing employee demands for health and wellness services/policies, corporate wellbeing can no longer be a tick-box exercise.
“Evidently, it’s becoming increasingly important for companies and industries as a whole to provide employees with their wellbeing needs, as around 83% of businesses have reported an increased employee demand for enhanced wellbeing benefits.
“While the retail sector leads the way for supporting employee wellness, there is still a lot of room for improvement across all sectors. The workplace wellbeing index criteria should be a goal and future industry standard for companies across the UK, rather than a rarity for employees and jobseekers.
“Companies and industries reluctant to invest in the foundations of a supportive workplace for employee wellbeing may risk losing out on top talent unless they meet the demands of their workforce by enhancing their wellbeing benefits packages.”
