Employers and employees agree that state funded healthcare is inadequate, according to research from Grid.
The industry body for the group risk sector found that 63 percent of employers, and 54 percent of employees believe there is a dearth of government support for the health and wellbeing of UK workers.
Employers said staff are affected as they cannot access support across all areas of health and wellbeing. Fifty-seven percent said their employees could not access mental health support, 52 percent pointed to a lack of preventative care, 48 percent said there was a lack of state financial support when people cannot work through sickness or injury, and 47 percent said there was a lack of physical health support.
All areas of health and wellbeing are a concern, but it is in employers interests in particular to help prevent staff illness and therefore reduce sickness absence.
Grid said that while much of primary care is moving in the direction of improving preventative support, it is not going far or fast enough from an employer’s perspective.
Katharine Moxham, spokesperson for Grid, said: “The current pressures on the public purse mean that this inadequate support is not going to change in the foreseeable future, and every company could be affected if they haven’t been already.”
Under these circumstances the group risk body emphasised the old adage ‘prevention is better than the cure’, from both an employer’s and employee’s perspective.
It urged employers to ensure workplace support includes a range of preventative measures, from apps to fitness tracking and health tests. A wide range will appeal to people of different demographics and preferences, it said.
Grid said that employee benefits, such as employer-sponsored life assurance, income protection and critical illness – collectively known as group risk benefits – offer a powerful yet affordable solution that provides wide-ranging financial and health and wellbeing support.
Moxham added: “While there are marginally fewer long-term sick employed people now than there were at the peak in 2023, the numbers are still worryingly high. Encouraging people back into the workplace is remarkably difficult, particularly where employers have little or no support in place, which is why preventing absenteeism in the first place should be the ultimate goal.
“State support for employees is only going in one direction, with government ever-more reliant on employers to step in and step up. Most employers will want to provide for their hard-working staff, and indeed, they will need to if they aren’t doing so already. There are a number of helpful employee benefit options available to employers on this front, and as the lack of access to support is likely to impact an increasing number of staff, there is no time like the present to put work-based support in place.”
