"It’s important that employers are aware of developments in support so they can make the most appropriate help available to the specific needs of their employees. A mismatch in what’s offered and what’s wanted, benefits no one."
- Debra Clark, Towergate & Protection head of specialist consulting
Recent research conducted by Towergate Health & Protection across 500 HR decision markers has revealed that employers are missing the mark with health and wellbeing support. Although social wellbeing has become widely available, the independent intermediary suggests employers aren’t providing enough mental health support despite employees seeing mental health as most important.
Currently, social health is provided by the majority of employers (59%) followed by mental health (56%), financial health (45%), and lastly physical health (44%).
However, Towergate Health & Protection’s research found that mental health support was the most sought after by employees (36%), followed by physical and financial health (21%). Only 12% of employees saw social health as important.
Debra Clark, Towergate Health & Protection head of specialist consulting, believes that the Pandemic and working from home have “pushed social wellbeing up the corporate agenda.” Although she recognised this as a “positive” she concluded that health and wellbeing support needs to "constantly evolve.”
Responding to the statistics on what support employees see as most important, Clark commented that it was interesting to see “employers are not providing the support that they themselves believe their employees want.”
She felt this may be down to requirements having recently changed or possibly due to certain areas of support being “easier to implement than others."
Towergate Health & Protection noted that finding out what employees want can be as simple as asking them This could be in the form of a questionnaire when employees join the company and/or at regular points throughout employment.
“Employers must consider what employees actually want in terms of support, and examine the particular demographics and specific risk profiles of their employees. For any health and wellbeing programme to be effective, it has to be relevant,” Clark concluded.
