At the start of a new year there is often a renewed focus on health and wellbeing. Adding to this trend in 2023 is a growing awareness post-pandemic, while the war for talent means employers are focusing even more on retention and productivity.
The discussion around health at work has proliferated recently, with Asda chairman Stuart Rose suggesting that employers should be legally obliged to support staff health, and Professor Susan Jebb, chairwoman of the Food Standards Agency (FSA), suggesting that bringing cake into the office is as harmful as second-hand smoke. Meanwhile, former Tony Blair spokesperson Alastair Campbell has called for more responsibility from employers, particularly around mental health.
Whose responsibility is it anyway?
Ensuring that employees are safe and protected at work is not a new concept. Augustus Vickery, senior principal, advisory at Gartner, argues that while wellbeing is not a strict legal obligation, it should be considered part of the spectrum of health and safety.
He explains: “Organisations are already under a legal requirement that [the workplace] cannot impact employees’ health unless they are being offered danger money. The difference is that health and safety is mandated, managed and measured, but wellbeing is not. It’s beholden on employees to hold employers to account.”
There are some who feel that making a clear legal obligation around creating healthy workspaces will hold employers to better account.
Pippa Andrews, director, corporate business at Vitality UK, does believe that employer responsibility should go beyond the health and safety minimums, and that employers should include employee wellbeing among their risk metrics.
She adds: “The hybrid working environment that many organisations now find themselves grappling with is complicated, making it even more complicated to understand what health and wellbeing means. Health and safety comes into it – like ensuring people have the right chairs – but also are they able to disconnect from the working environment, or is that negatively impacting their mental health?”
Recent legislation in France prevents employers from contacting staff outside of certain working hours, enshrining the right to disconnect. So, there is certainly a rising tide. However, this is not a simple subject. The onus also must lie with the employee to maintain healthy practices at work, just as it is in their personal lives.
Paul Shires, commercial director at Health Shield Friendly Society, says: “We all as individuals need to take responsibility for our own health, but we spend so much time at work, and work has profound impacts on wellbeing and health – whether it’s the way you sit, musculoskeletal issues, or your relationship with your boss and mental health issues. So yes, the employer has a huge role to play in the health and wellbeing of employees.”
As an employer that takes pride in its wellbeing-focused practices, Ashton McGill focuses on striking the right balance between encouraging positive habits and leaving it up to the individual.
Managing director Alasdair McGill says: “I’m mindful that I don’t want to tell people what to do. Health is a passion of mine, and we are facing a lot of problems in this country, but how much of that is our responsibility as employers? Perhaps the responsibility is to lead by example – people might choose to follow that or not, I would certainly not want to be preachy, because ultimately everyone has their own choice.”
Benefits that work
The first image that springs to mind when discussing healthy workplaces might be nutritious snacks, on-site gyms and lunch-hour yoga classes. However, while there are some near-universals, individual health needs are complex and varied.
First, it is important to consider effects of the job itself. Some employers, for example, have introduced unlimited wellbeing breaks for call centre staff; the work gets done, and employees are free to disconnect as they see fit.
Ashton McGill strives to provide juices and healthy snacks in the workplace, noting the benefits these can have on not just physical but mental health, but also provides staff with a pre-paid Cleo card to be used for whatever wellbeing activity they see fit, as well as access to Vitality, which includes perks such as discounted smart watches and access to mindfulness app Headspace.
“We all enjoy cake now and again, we’re just not trying to do it every day,” McGill says. “We’re trying to encourage, as opposed to tell.”
Andrews adds that many employers, particularly in sectors such as retail, are considering expanding private medical insurance (PMI) to their full workforce. The everyday health benefits of this expand beyond smart watches, to virtual GPs and direct referrals, fostering a culture where employees can look after their health, both in the workplace and outside of it.
Similarly, a health cash plan helps individuals recoup money for everyday health expenses. During a difficult economic period, many might let the upkeep of things like dentist appointments slip, which could lead to greater health issues down the line. By helping with these costs, employers can help staff come to the workplace well each day.
Shires says: “A cash plan is really affordable for the company – it’s a fraction of the salary bill and gives employees the financial confidence to stay on top of their routine healthcare.”
Other perks provided by Vitality, for example, include discounted healthy food, incentives such as free cinema tickets and coffees linked wellbeing activities, access to Peppy menopause support, and in-work testing, encouraging staff to check in on underlying factors such as blood sugar and cholesterol.
Making the right choice
Whatever benefits an employer chooses, it is important to remember that wellbeing is holistic. Providing fruit might be a good start, but a strong policy will address other factors, including financial and mental health.
Approaches should also differ from one employer to the next – front-line staff will likely have different everyday wellbeing needs compared with those in an office or at home.
As most employers will understand acutely post-pandemic, employee needs can also change rapidly. The emergence of hybrid working brought a vast set of new challenges, bringing to the fore options such as remote fitness classes and regular wellness check-ins.
Vickery says: “A lot of HR leaders are still battling with executive teams around whether people should come to the office. The leading organisations shaping those debates say, ‘sure there could be some different locations, but how do we support people’s wellbeing so they can do their best work, regardless?’”
In the current environment, HR leaders may need to focus more on demonstrating ROI, as well as ensuring benefits are actually being used by staff. When deciding what benefits work best, the place to start is in speaking with employees, gaining honest insight into problem areas in their workplace wellbeing.
Andrews adds: “Measure the take-up and engagement. Some organisations are offering perhaps 60 different interventions, but which ones are staff aware of, and which are they actually using? Perhaps you need to invest more in awareness building, or scrap some altogether.”
“There’s no one-size-fits-all, where you can just provide a gym or apples. You need to know what works and what doesn’t, what’s engaging people and what isn’t – and be aware that that can shift over time, like it did with hybrid working.”
John Dent, owner of Fresh Health, explains that everyday wellbeing is not just about health. Some organisations might offer staff lunchtime walks to local art or poetry venues as a way of getting out of the office and stimulating creativity and conversation – this is likely to be much more engaging, and less alienating, than simply banning cake from the office.
Ideally, individual coaching should play a role, providing staff with the opportunity to understand their own circumstances.
“Create a culture in which people understand that their individual needs are going to be different to the person next to them, but where there is a dialogue about what wellbeing looks like,” Dent says. “Then, enable them to make informed decisions, while understanding their strengths and drivers, rather than forcing people to do something that perhaps doesn’t engage them.”
The benefits of going beyond
In response to rising concerns around ‘cake culture’ and unhealthy workplaces, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has come out pointedly in favour of personal choice over legal obligation. So, it does not seem that this is going to become a legal obligation, under this administration at least.
Nevertheless, McGill suggests that this should be seen not as a responsibility, but an opportunity for employers.
Andrews adds: “People spend a significant proportion of their waking hours at work, and health and wellbeing is intrinsically linked to engagement and performance. If for no other reason, employers should expect higher performance, higher retention, lower absence, lower presenteeism.”
Vitality reports that 69% of business leaders recognise this link, while 82% of employees across all age groups believe employers have a greater responsibility to offer health and wellbeing benefits post-pandemic.
If nothing else, employers may find they have no choice but to focus on these benefits if they want to remain profitable and appealing to top talent.
Andrews adds that taking a proactive approach to everyday health can also reduce the risk of long-term absence down the line. If someone needs surgery, recovery times are proven to decrease based on their health going in, while keeping a workforce healthy can reduce sickness absence costs.
Vickery says: “The tech industry has known this going back 10 years, that’s why those employers spent so much money on perks, going way beyond market requirements, to generate the massive value needed for the organisation, and massive revenue for shareholders.”
Cultural and holistic
The value of encouraging healthy practices at work is evident, either for getting the best performance out of staff, or remaining a competitive employer of choice.
However, Shires notes: “If someone just throws a cash plan in thinking, ‘that solves all our problems, it’s got everything in it, wonderful, we’re done now’, then how engaged will employees be? It’s important benefits aren’t just thrown in as a tick-box. It’s got to be culturally embedded.”
This approach is something Ashton McGill takes seriously. While McGill enjoys creating a workplace that celebrates wellbeing and fitness, without purpose and a positive culture as a foundation, he notes that this could have a disengaging effect.
This, Andrews adds, is where things like nudge theory and gentle incentivisation come into play, potentially marking the difference between an overbearing culture and one which supports the employee on their own terms.
“If you use a broad brush stroke with everybody, it’s reductionist,” says Dent. “Behavioural change within an organisation should come from creating a culture that supports those behaviours, without being paternalistic or judgmental. What is incumben for organisations is to create a culture whereby everybody feels valued and included, and individualised wellbeing is part of that.”
Finally, Vickery says, those employers with the best culture centred around supporting staff wellbeing will be proactive and put things in place ahead of future challenges, understanding the factors that will affect employees not as just a number, but as individuals. On a practical level, for 2023 this might mean focusing on financial wellbeing in particular – personalised financial services or flexible access to pay, for example.
He concludes: “Something executives need to remember – and we are here to remind them – is that these are not just employees, they are humans.”
