Employers are too often prioritising support for mental (72%) and physical (45%) wellbeing at the expense of financial health, even though this an area of growing concern for employees, according to a poll.
The study for broking firm WTW found mental health declining among many employees and a quarter of the workers polled saying they were suffering from poor physical health.
That goes some way towards explaining why employers are prioritising supporting in this area. Yet, employees also said that financial wellbeing support was their top area of concern (59%), despite being the one of the lowest priorities for employers (24%).
Support for financial wellbeing, for example through life and disability insurance or retirement/savings programmes, was valued by employees, said WTW.
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Yet fewer employers were providing much-needed support in the way of educating employees on the various financial issues they may face or offering personalised financial decision support for spending, borrowing and saving.
Two-fifths of employees (42%) said they were suffering with moderate or major issues in at least two areas of their wellbeing.
Almost two-thirds of employees (59%) said they had above-average levels of stress, while 40% reported symptoms of anxiety or depression.
Kazune Kozen, clinical and data analytics lead in health and benefits at WTW, said: “Increasing mental health issues have brought employee wellbeing to the forefront of employers’ minds in recent years. 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,” she added.
More positively, , many employers (65%) said they were planning to boost communication about their wellbeing programmes and connect wellbeing to company culture (56%) to raise the bar on employee health and wellbeing.
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