Employers urged to look beyond perks to support staff

Entrepreneur Reeva Misra did not expect to focus on the workplace when she began exploring ideas for preventive health tech ventures a few years ago. But, as she researched the causes of long-term ill health, she kept coming back to the same factor.

“The data was crystal clear . . . Stress is shortening our lifespan,” Misra says. According to UK research group YouGov, some 58 per cent of working-age adults experience stress at work, and its impact on health and longevity is now well documented. “The biggest place we could make an impact was the workplace, and making that impact is not just the individual’s responsibility but the employer’s,” she notes.

Misra, who launched health and wellness platform Walking On Earth in 2020, is not alone in concluding that companies have a crucial role in employee wellbeing.

According to asset manager Fidelity International, companies employing more than 20,000 people spent an average of $11mn on wellbeing initiatives in 2022, up from $10.5mn the previous year. The amount spent by mid-sized companies also rose 60 per cent in the same period, from $184 to $294 per employee.

But exactly how employers take responsibility for staff wellbeing is under scrutiny. Many managers and worker advocates believe employers should go further than add-ons.

What really shapes the lives of staff, they argue, is the work they do, the conditions they do it in, and how they are rewarded and paid. And, if these are the areas where employers already shape their staff’s wellbeing, they are also the areas in which they can best improve.

The idea is already being advocated by big corporate names including Deloitte. “Leaders cannot rely on perks and programmes alone, which often come at a high cost . . . to help address the biggest determinants that shape wellbeing at work,” the consultancy group stated in a recent report. “Little progress can be made if the root causes of poor workforce wellbeing are not addressed.”

This is because work, according to the report’s authors and the World Health Organization, is a “social determinant of health”.

This view is shared by workers’ groups, too. Rob Miguel, the health and safety adviser at UK union Unite, is cautious about what he suggests can be “fluffy” initiatives, such as wellbeing apps or perks.

He is more interested in what he calls the “hardware”: ensuring liveable hours, good working conditions and support, as well as more tangible health services, such as screening. “Actually taking action on this stuff, not just a chat, offering some real support” would benefit workers, he says.

So what does shifting the dial mean for employers? Deloitte says “addressing the workplace determinants of wellbeing cannot be the responsibility of HR alone”. While employees have some responsibility for their own wellbeing — not least because they need to take advantage of any additional benefits their employer provides — efforts should not just follow “traditional” frameworks that focus on the individual making a change, its report adds.

Good line management, and the way job design and job role is communicated . . . make a big difference

Tracey Paxton, chief clinical officer of the Employee Resilience Company, a provider of employee assistance provisions to public and private sector organisations, says that there is “no one blueprint” that companies should follow when supporting wellbeing for their staff. This is in part because there are so many drivers of wellbeing that employers have the power to change.

“Well-designed working areas, good line management, and the way job design and job role is communicated . . . make a big difference,” Paxton says. She also cites “Good leadership — the values and principles of the organisation, trust and good governance . . . Have staff got clear communication lines with line managers? Do they have a say in demands?” Adequate time off, and pay and awards, too, are “absolutely crucial”, she adds.

This does not mean targeted initiatives are irrelevant. Employers can make a big impact by providing strong healthcare packages and, in some territories, such as the US, they have an explicit responsibility for doing so.

One of the crucial areas for making a difference to staff wellbeing is primary care, which can include preventive care, lifestyle guidance and screening. Marla McLaughlin, chief medical officer of US healthcare provider Apree Health, says employers are ideally placed to bring together services to help workers — but often fail to.

“They might have an app for cardiovascular health, for diabetes, for mindfulness” she says. “That’s not how a person works — if that ecosystem is not highly co-ordinated you’re not going to see the ultimate output.”

Investing in this kind of prevention will probably mean employer-backed healthcare is less expensive in the long run, say providers. And, aside from any moral responsibility, employers have even more to gain. According to UK professional body the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, investing in employee wellbeing can lead to “increased resilience, better employee engagement, reduced sickness absence and higher performance”, all boosting overall productivity.

Many, including Misra, believe targeted interventions still have a place. There are, she says, real issues with so-called sticking plaster solutions when employers make piecemeal gestures to demonstrate they are doing something. But because her platform, Walking On Earth, includes extensive training, or features that ensure activities can be consistently incorporated into daily calendars, it requires a genuine investment from employers.

“We can’t say at a law firm our platform is going to end billable hours, but there are things that we can do,” she says. “That does make an impact.”