Employers are almost unanimous in seeing a direct correlation between workplace health and performance, a study by benefits provider Aon Employee Benefits has concluded.
Its survey of 200 UK organisations found that 96% of employers agreed that such a link existed.
The same percentage also agreed or strongly agreed that they were responsible for improving employee health behaviours. In fact, more than three quarters (77%) said they were looking to improve on their existing health and wellbeing programmes in the next 12 months.
Although employee physical health remained important to employers, they were also looking to strike a balance between what are becoming “the four widely accepted core pillars of health and wellbeing”, or emotional, physical, social and financial health, according to Aon.
Some 43% of employers were looking to evolve their emotional health offering to support mental health issues further.
More than half (53%) said they were looking to improve the support available to employees through financial wellbeing initiatives.
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
Mark Witte, head of healthcare & risk consulting at Aon Employee Benefits, said: “The concerns of employers are many, but – across the board – mental health is seen as the top current concern on their agenda (43%), while physical (33% and lifestyle 33% behaviours follow closely behind.
“Indeed, 95% of employers are concerned about the current and future issues of mental health. The number one future concern by a significant margin is an ageing workforce (43%) and it will clearly be an area of enormous focus in the coming years,” he added.
