Leveraging Occupational Health and Employee Benefits for Maximum Organisational Impact
Occupational health is a medical specialty focused on the relationship between work and health. Among the different categories of employee benefits, several align closely with the health domain. So, where do employee benefits and occupational health intersect, and how can organisations leverage this synergy for maximum impact?
Understanding Employee Benefits in the Health Context
There are various kinds of employee benefits available. Here's a useful categorisation of those that interface with work and health:
Health and Wellness Benefits
Examples: Health insurance, mental health support, gym memberships.
Work/Life Balance Benefits
Examples: Paid time off (vacation or sick leave), parental leave, flexible working options.
Protection and Security Benefits
Examples: Life insurance, disability insurance, workers' compensation.
Multiple inroads exist at the health/work interface across these benefit streams. The synergy between employee benefits and occupational health is useful to keep in mind when thinking through benefit offerings.
1. Is Occupational Health a Benefit?
In landscapes like the UK economy, where access to occupational health isn't universal, it's up to employers to offer these services. When specialist work and health expertise is available, shouldn't it be considered a valuable employee benefit?
Some might argue that occupational health services, which support both employees and the organisation, don't fit the traditional definition of a benefit. However, good occupational health is about more than just risk management and compliance; it's about prevention, early intervention, support, and productivity. Done well, occupational health should be a key component of compensation packages alongside other headline benefits.
2. Can Benefits Fill the Gap in the Absence of Occupational Health?
While clinical occupational health expertise is irreplaceable, well-deployed and evidence-based benefits can achieve some work and health outcomes. Achieving progress under headings like "wellbeing" can be challenging without a clear definition. Without specific goals, both the organisation and the workforce might be confused about the purpose of certain benefits.
The Society of Occupational Medicine has just published an excellent guide on navigating products and services in the health and wellbeing space. Key elements to consider when offering benefits aimed at improving wellbeing include:
Meet Legal Obligations: Ensure you're compliant with all relevant laws as a baseline.
Define Wellbeing: Tailor the definition to your context, industry, organisation, and workforce.
Strategic Investment: Be systematic about what you invest in and why. For example, offering unlimited paid time off may not make sense if your workforce already takes less than their entitlement.
Shared Approach: Consult your workforce on what's important to them and align it with organisational incentives. Consider consulting other stakeholders as well.
Implement Feedback Loops: Choose your metrics carefully and monitor changes. While real-world contexts aren't controlled experiments, strategic learning remains highly valuable.
3. Leveraging Occupational Health Evidence to Inform Benefit Offerings
Evidence is crucial for companies thinking strategically about their benefit offerings. In organisations with high levels of work-related stress, targeting benefits at pressure points connected to evidence-based trigger factors can help address challenges as they emerge. While organisations can choose to offer benefits separate from their priorities, forward-thinking businesses align compensation strategies with the bigger picture and look to high quality evidence to inform decision making.
The Future: Workplace Prevention for Productivity
Learning from the U.S., there's significant scope for benefits to provide solutions in the population health and prevention space. Employers are stakeholders in the health of their workforce because employee health impacts the business bottom line. This is more evident in the U.S., where employers often fund employee healthcare via insurance, leading them to invest more readily in employee health prevention programs.
In fact, evidence from the U.S. demonstrates that health-related productivity costs are typically 2-3 times direct medical costs. So, employers are impacted regardless of whether insurance is part of compensation packages.
Case Study: Proactive Health Initiatives
Consider one Texas-based retailer employing close to 100,000 people. The business is self-insured and provides financial bonuses to employees who remain well or attend targeted wellness classes to improve health following screenings. This approach improves employee health and benefits the business financially.
Innovative Approaches in Employee Benefits
Weight loss management medications to support people back to work have been in the UK press recently. While it can take time for initiatives like this to be rolled out via public services, innovative employers might consider similar programs as part of an employee benefits package. Tying employee benefits in with a broader work and health agenda keeps at-risk employees healthy and productive.
Lara’s take
Aligning occupational health with employee benefits creates a powerful synergy that enhances employee wellbeing and boosts organisational productivity. By considering occupational health as a vital employee benefit and leveraging evidence-based strategies, organisations can proactively address health challenges and stay ahead in a competitive market. But this doesn’t happen enough. In my experience, occupational health rarely features in conversations about health and wellbeing benefits.
Use the evidence base! Consider utilising occupational health expertise when developing strategic health and wellness benefit offerings to improve employee wellbeing and drive organisational success.