"Increasing mental health issues have brought employee wellbeing to the forefront of employers’ minds in recent years."
- Kazune Kozen, Clinical & Data Analytics Leads in Health & Benefits at WTW
Of those surveyed (131), 59% of employees identified financial wellbeing as the most important form of support, but this was the lowest priority (24%) amongst employers. Instead, the majority of employers have focused on mental (72%) and physical (45%) wellbeing.
These figures oppose Towergate Health & Protection’s recent findings which also uncovered miscommunication on health & wellbeing but with employers prioritising financial wellbeing despite deeming mental & physical wellbeing (52%) as most concerning amongst their employees.
“It’s extremely interesting to see the disconnect between 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.
READ MORE: There’s a balancing act involved in providing the right health & wellbeing support
WTW said employers often provide foundational support for financial wellbeing but very few offer support in the way of educating employees i.e. personalised financial decision support for spending, borrowing, and saving.
While more employees were worried about their financial wellbeing, 42% were also struggling with ‘moderate’ or ‘major’ issues in at least two areas of their wellbeing. Notably, almost two-thirds (59%) had ‘above average’ levels of stress, with 40% having reported symptoms of anxiety or depression.
Employees have reportedly said the effectiveness of Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) has declined since the Pandemic, reducing from 38% to just 27%.WTW believes this may be due to a disconnect between employers (69%) who thought these programmes were helpful and their workforce (29%).
Gaby Joyner, Head of Employee Experience in Europe at WTW, explained “It’s important that employers focus on getting the right priorities in place to support the varied needs of their workforce, as well as creating an enabling environment that promotes the services they make available.”
“Increasing mental health issues have brought employee wellbeing to the forefront of employers’ minds in recent years,” agreed Kazune Kozen, Clinical & Data Analytics Leads in Health & Benefits at WTW.
They said: “Companies have been leaning heavily into physical and mental wellbeing to make it a core part of their human capital strategy. We know that these investments have improved employees' perceptions of these initiatives.
"Organisations that are highly effective at employee wellbeing often report better business outcomes, such as enhanced financial performance and reduced employee turnover. However, there is a disconnect between the wellbeing areas that employers are investing in and what employees are saying they need help with,” Kazune concluded.
