Health Matters in the Workplace

Welcome to ‘Health of the Workplace’. In this, our fifth annual study, we're once again reporting on the health issues that employers and employees are facing – and looking at progress and developments in the UK over the last year.

We’ve been asking opinions about a wide range of subjects concerning health and welfare in the workplace. From a focus on absence management to up-and-coming changes from the Government that could affect our whole country’s health provision, the result is an insightful look at the nation's Health of the Workplace.

Insights, learnings

Our report is unique in its depth and approach: not surprisingly, the conclusions are always revealing. This year, some of the most telling learnings centre around presenteeism – attendance at work in less than best health. As we can clearly demonstrate, our conclusions show that although employers are encouraging employees to invest more in taking care of themselves, there are signs that the economic climate is still affecting our attitudes to employment and job security.

Our findings include:

• Working lunches...
  Heavy workloads and stress are playing a part in employees forgetting to eat healthy foods, and many employers are not providing food in the workplace at all. Findings show that there’s still room to educate and improve health awareness at work, with the potential to re-engage energy levels for individuals who aren’t eating healthily during the working day.
  Find out more about Working lunches
• Sick of being sick...
  Our report shows that an alarming number of employees still go into work if they are ill – presenteeism appears to be a growing issue, with many individuals feeling obliged to attend, ‘rather than let colleagues down’.
  Find out more about Sick of being sick
• Still worried about stress...
  Although fewer employees are reporting stress as being the reason for not attending work, a surprising number say they still prefer not to name stress as being an issue. Following on from last year’s report, there’s still a clear need to remove the stigma associated with mental health issues.
  Find out more about Still worried about stress
• Staff Habits...
  With only a small minority of employees feeling their health has improved now that we’re out of recession, is it time to start focusing more on helping employees incorporate health and wellbeing into their normal working day?
  Find out more about Staff Habits

As experts in Business Health, we’re constantly innovating and drawing on our clinical expertise to promote health and wellbeing in the workplace. The Health of the Workplace report demonstrates our commitment to explore current trends – not only in principle, but also in practice. With this hands-on approach to researching what really matters, we’re in an ideal position to advise employers and employees - using our expertise to develop health solutions for the right treatment, at the right time.

To discover more details from the survey, please download the full Health of the Workplace Report (PDF 16KB).