It might seem mad with the current meltdown in the financial markets to start trying to get employers to report on employee health and wellbeing in company reports, but that's exactly what employers group Business in the Community are doing. And I, for one, support them. Just to remind you, BITC tires to get its 850 members including many from the FTSE 100 to take Corporate Social Responsibility seriously. Today BITC launched the annual report for its campaign Business Action on Health. The campaign aims to make employee health and wellbeing a boardroom issue.
The report shows that eight out of 10 FTSE 100 companies are publicly reporting on employee health and wellbeing compared to seven out of 10 last year. Forty are doing this in their company reports and the campaign aims to get 75% doing so by 2011. But is health and wellbeing a boardroom issue or just a low level employee welfare matter? It all boils down to the business case. Tools like Business Healthcheck, developed by PwC and launched in March alongside Dame Carol Black's recommendations on work and health, show how to measure the return on investment in health and wellbeing. There are many good reasons to take the issue seriously but at a time when cost cutting is high on the agenda of most boardrooms surely anything that can demonstrably save money is worth a try?
