Most adults spend a large proportion of their lives at work. This means that employers can play a key role in improving their employees health and wellbeing. Having a healthy and productive workforce can help business success.

Having an unhealthy and unhappy workforce costs businesses:

• In the UK, around 141 million working days are lost every year to sickness absence (ONS, 2019).This costs UK businesses almost £92 billion a year (Vitality/RAND Europe, 2019)
• Presenteeism (attending work while sick) has been called the biggest threat to UK workplace productivity. Mental health issues account for a significant percentage of presenteeism, costing UK employers around £27 billion each year (Deloitte, 2020)
• Musculoskeletal problems (including back pain and neck pain) are a leading cause of sickness absence in the UK, second only to minor illnesses (such as coughs and colds) (ONS, 2019)
• Mental health conditions are also a major cause of sickness absence. In the UK, 17.5 million absence days were due to stress, anxiety and depression in 2018 (ONS, 2019).

You can Save money by investing in staff health and wellbeing

• 34.3 million days lost for Minor Illness
• 28.2 Million days lost for MSK
• 14.3 Million days lost for Mental Health illness

1 in 3 employees with a long-term health condition have not discussed this with an employer

Deciding where to invest in staff health and wellbeing

The workplace health needs assessment tool can help.

UKHSA have designed this tool for employers of all types and sizes. It is a simple way to gather anonymous information about the health of your workforce, via a staff survey. It also provides a baseline of data, that you can use to track your progress on health and wellbeing against.

View the workplace Health Needs Assessment pdf.

Developing and evaluating workplace health interventions

UKHSA have produced a ‘Developing and evaluating workplace health interventions: Employer toolkit’. This useful toolkit provides guidance for employers to develop their offer of workplace health interventions.

GOV.UK Developing and evaluating workplace health interventions: employer toolkit.

Workplace health initiatives can benefit both employers and staff:

• Benefits for employers:
• Increased productivity
• Reduced absenteeism and presenteeism
• Greater staff retention
• Reduced costs to train new staff
• A more positive corporate image
• Lower rates of early retirement due to ill health
• Fewer workplace accidents and injuries

Benefits for staff:

• Improved physical and mental health
• Increased motivation
• Less absenteeism and faster recovery
• Reduced MSK and Mental Illness
• Improved staff morale and retention
• Greater work satisfaction
• Healthy Vision
• Healthy Workplace
• Healthy People

A well-developed, inclusive health and wellbeing strategy can help increase employee engagement, create a more fulfilling place to work and ultimately help your business to recruit and retain staff.

• Healthy Vision
• Healthy Workplace
• Healthy People