"While there are cost and time implications involved in offering the best possible, and most appropriate, health and wellbeing support programme, these must be seen in context with the huge advantages to be gained."
- Debra Clark, Head of Wellbeing at Towergate Health & Protection
Of those surveyed (500), 33% of employers said the greatest barrier to providing better health & wellbeing support for their employees was high costs. This was followed by administration costs (21%), too few employees to make it worthwhile or cost-effective (20%), administration time (19%), and lack of interest from employees (16%).
Meanwhile, 16% of employers said difficulty in making health & wellbeing support equally accessible to all employees was the greatest barrier, while 15% weren’t sure how to provide better support. 13% said effective communication was the crux of the problem, followed by getting approval from a global parent company (12%), too many employees to provide better support (11%), not knowing who to talk to for advice on what to offer (10%), and lack of support from the board (8%).
When asked about the main advantages in offering health and wellbeing support, 38% of employers said it boosts staff loyalty, while 35% said they’d experienced increased staff retention. This was followed by elevated productivity (34%), ‘it’s the right thing to do’ (34%), increased engagement (30%), ‘it aligns with our culture & values’ (26%), reduced absenteeism (25%), and support for recruitment (20%). Thankfully, only 9% hadn’t seen any advantages in offering health & wellbeing support to their staff.
Debra Clark, Head of Wellbeing at Towergate Health & Protection, said “looking after employees must be a priority for 2024.” She feels it’s short-sighted to minimise health & wellbeing support to save costs. “While costs were the main obstacle stated by companies, offering health & wellbeing support does not need to be expensive, there are many low-cost and value-for-money options now available,” Debra explained.
