"This means that employers may need a more strategic approach to providing the right health & wellbeing support, to ensure the most pressing concerns are addressed."
- Debra Clark, Head of Wellbeing at Towergate Health & Protection
Of those surveyed (500), 89% of employers are concerned about the health & wellbeing of their workforce. 52% are worried about mental & physical health, followed by financial health (46%), and social health (41%).
However, when asked what they thought their employees wanted support with, financial health (49%) jumped to the top of the list, followed by physical health (24%), mental health (21%), and social health (7%).
Towergate Health & Protection believes offering the most appropriate employee benefits is a matter of striking the right balance. Therefore, it’s a good idea to do some investigative work and use employee surveys to discover what staff want; ask them what their concerns are and what support they’d like.
Although financial support may be popular, Towergate stressed that providing support via benefits, such as Critical Illness Cover (CIC), childcare, and mental health counselling, may be more valuable to their overall health & wellbeing.
Towergate Health & Protection said that to support staff, employers should offer a range of support in line with the four pillars of health. These pillars are inextricably linked, and when the right support is provided (and communicated with staff), both employer and employee needs can be met.
“It’s extremely interesting to see the disconnect between the areas of health & wellbeing that employers are concerned about for their staff, and what they feel most concerns their staff in practice,” highlighted Debra Clark, Head of Wellbeing at Towergate Health & Protection.
She said: “This means that employers may need a more strategic approach to providing the right health & wellbeing support, to ensure the most pressing concerns are addressed.”
“There’s a balancing act involved in providing the right health & wellbeing support. It’s important to ensure that all areas of health & wellbeing are given due consideration and that there’s support available that will meet with the different needs across a workforce, with help in all areas, not just the easiest or most obvious ones to deal with,” Debra concluded.
