Nutrition, fitness, and lifestyle support should be part of workplace health benefits to promote greater engagement and usage, according to Peppy.
Support for more general health issues like food and exercise can be advantageous for workers with underlying problems, as well as a way to reach harder-to-engage demographics that don’t consider themselves as the target audience for health benefits.
Over a third or 37 per cent of companies acknowledge that it is extremely important that employee benefits for both men’s and women’s health are accompanied by assistance with more general health issues like physical activity and diet. Almost 48 per cent of respondents said it was somewhat important, while 14 per cent said it was not important.
Peppy CEO Dr Mridula Pore says: “It’s positive to see employers acknowledging that lifestyle support is important in health benefits. However, communication around worst-case scenarios such as cancer or serious mental health issues may not trigger as many employees to engage. And if employees are at arm’s length from their health benefits, they will not truly appreciate or benefit from the depth and breadth of the support available.”
Employers may encourage a healthy lifestyle by focusing on topics like better ways to exercise or train, the advantages of excellent eating, and enhancing sleep, according to Peppy. Although they are not deemed “sick” in these situations, employees may be hesitant to see their doctor, even when they might benefit from support.
The majority of employees will benefit from individualised support on changing lifestyle and habits, such as fitness, improved understanding of nutrition, and fostering mental toughness, even if many may not have a diagnosed ailment. Peppy thinks that when a topic is pertinent to them and if they have spoken to a real, live expert in that subject, employees are more inclined to engage, which leads to better health results for the person. Once a worker is actively using their health benefits, other issues can be addressed, which is essential for early detection and prevention.
Although health benefits are primarily offered to help the employee, the advantages to the company in terms of productivity, hiring, and retention are also well-documented says Peppy. But simply offering these advantages will not increase an employee’s productivity or loyalty; instead, they must use them. Therefore, in order to get the most out of their investment, businesses must find a way to motivate their employees to use their health benefits.
Pore adds: “Deploying lifestyle support is a great tactic to engage many more staff with health benefits in the longer term – we particularly see this with our male users. Offering this support also maximises the opportunity to improve staff health. This is true for all staff but particularly so for specific demographics, such as men, who are much more inclined to initially engage in areas that focus on lifestyle.
“For some employees this might mean supporting them in planning a training programme to meet their fitness goals, for others it will be understanding how they can improve their sleep.
“As well as the business advantages of having a workforce engaged with their health benefits, there is also a more intangible emotional value here that centres on whether staff feel cared for and whether they are living their best life. This is becoming increasingly important for employers to understand and action.”
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