03 Mar 2023
Recent research1 carried out by Group Risk Development (GRiD) who are the industry body for the group risk sector suggests that 80% of employers have increased their health and wellbeing support or employee benefits to adapt to the changing circumstances of their staff.
Since Covid, the importance of Wellbeing for employees has rapidly moved its way up the list of importance for employers. The common view is that providing support for employees across all aspects of wellbeing does not just help with the recruitment and retention of staff but it is also the right thing to do from a morale stance too.
GRiD research found that over the past 12 months, employees felt that their health and wellbeing had deteriorated mentally, physically, financially, and socially, with financial wellbeing being the area most impacted:
- 40% of employees felt that their financial health had deteriorated.
- 29% felt that their mental health had deteriorated.
- 28% felt that their physical health had deteriorated.
- 24% felt that their social health had deteriorated.
As a result, employers need to take action to help support employees where possible.
The same research suggests that employers are aware of the support that they need to give to their staff. The research shows that over the same period, employers themselves felt their responsibility had increased in all areas of wellbeing towards their employees:
- 51% of employers felt increased responsibility for their employees’ mental wellbeing
- 51% felt increased responsibility for employees’ social wellbeing
- 49% felt increased responsibility for employees’ financial wellbeing
- 47% felt increased responsibility for employees’ physical wellbeing
Looking at these statistics, the message is certainly getting through to employers and in my opinion, it’s apparent that financial wellbeing is the area of most concern for employees. This would be a good starting point for employers to focus their attention and an example of how employers could tackle this wide ranging topic is financial education. Arranging educational sessions around Mortgages, Budget Planning, Savings & Investment, as well as Pensions to try to help employees manage the money they do have more efficiently could be highly effective. The message doesn’t need to be complicated and should be delivered with clear next steps so that employees can get as much value out of the sessions as possible.
Wingate Benefits Solutions are very well placed to help assist employers increase the provision of their health and wellbeing support either through the employee benefits they currently offer to their staff or through the implementation of new products or services. Should you wish to arrange for a free review of your Health & Wellbeing strategy, please contact one of the team at Wingate on 01883 332260 or at info@wingatebs.com .
1 The research was undertaken by Opinium from 9-22 January 2023 among 503 HR decision-makers and from 10-13 January amongst 1,212 employees at UK businesses.
