The vital role that employers play in improving the health of the nation and easing the burden on the NHS should be given much more recognition by the government, business leaders have said. But before that is likely to happen, British companies must begin to report formally on health and wellness across their organisations, they acknowledge.
Business in the Community (BITC), the employers’ representative group, said it is launching a national campaign calling for at least 75% of all FTSE 100 companies to publicly report on employee wellbeing by 2011. Organisations including Boots, RWE npower, National Grid, Abbey, Aramark, and Danone Dairies have already made a three-year commitment to support the Business Action on Health campaign.
As part of the campaign, Towers Perrin has put together a “Healthy Workplace Action Pack” offering a 12 step approach suitable for any employer wishing to optimise the health of its employees.
Speaking at a recent Health Insurance forum, Mike Hall, chief executive of Standard Life Healthcare – itself a signatory of the campaign – said that as the NHS struggles to deal with the issue of improving wellness, the government will increasingly expect employers to fill the gap.
“The Department for Work and Pensions has accepted the argument that employers need to make the difference,” he said. “But there has to be an incentive to kick that off.”