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Bupa picks up slack of 'stalled' workplace health reform

29 June 2010 Breaking News

The pace of reform to tackle the worsening health of the UK workforce is in danger of slowing, according to Bupa.

The insurer's new report Healthy Work: Evidence into Action calls for a more evidence-based approach to health interventions and a more robust approach to measuring return on investment.

It warns that while some employers already invest in a range of interventions others regard them as a benefit or perk for senior managers. Research suggests that 32% of employers who offer health insurance restrict the number of employees they offer it to and 18% who offer health screening do likewise. Meanwhile, SMEs (which constitute 99% of UK companies) lacking a dedicated HR function present "the real challenge of promoting productivity and improving public health".

A key challenge identified in the report is the fact that employers find it difficult to measure the return on their investment in interventions. Only 69% of employers record the annual employee absence rate and just 6% calculate their return on investment in workplace health (up from 5% in 2005), according to Employee Benefits Simplyhealth research.

Although some studies into the impact of workplace health interventions are of low quality and not all measure important factors such as the return on investment for employers, the report's authors have found over 600 pieces of evidence on the effectiveness of a broad range of interventions. Of these, 31 looked at return on investment and, encouragingly, found it ranged from 1.2 to 1.34.

Another difficulty identified in the report is the impact of the economic downturn. Research carried out by Bupa in 2008 found that that among employers who invested in workplace health the recession meant that 54% would be under pressure to reduce the scale of their investment the following year and 19% would have to reconsider which interventions they put in place. According to the report's authors, pound for pound investment in workplace health is competing in the boardroom with the pound for pound investment in staff training and development.

The report makes a number of recommendations for the government, employers and providers of workplace health interventions. These include several relevant to corporate advisers, including the importance of offering tools to help employers understand the health profile of their workforce and gathering more evidence on how to implement interventions in a way that will maximise their effectiveness.

The full report can be found here.

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