It’s becoming more and more important for organisations to adopt comprehensive Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies which include a strong focus on employee wellbeing and work/life balance. Sue Weir, chief executive of leading healthcare cash plan provider Medicash, looks at the responsibility employers have and how they can make a difference to both the working and home life of their most valuable assets.

Sue Weir, chief executive, Medicash

Looking after the wellbeing of employees is crucial for an organisation to thrive and it’s critical to have systems in place to address this. While the right level of stress keeps us motivated, excessive pressure to succeed can be damaging to those working to achieve such goals; resulting in stress, ill health and high staff turnover. It's important for the culture of an organisation to promote hard work, but it's equally important to encourage employees to take time out to unwind. Balancing work and home life so that both areas are fulfilling and productive is a must and all employers have a responsibility to do their upmost to ensure this happens. 

In 2005 the government launched a programme to improve the overall personal health and wellbeing of people of working age. The aim was to prevent people becoming injured or ill, keep them healthy in work and provide accessible support to enable them to remain in or return to work more quickly.

Stress linked to absence

The national director for health and work, Dame Carol Black, recently published a review of the health of the working population in which she stated that around 175 million working days were lost to illness in 2006. The annual economic costs of absence associated with ill health are estimated to be over £100 billion.

Stress is a particular area of concern with one in five people claiming they are suffering from workplace stress. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) revealed that a total of 13.8 million working days were lost to work-related stress, depression and anxiety in 2006/07.

At Medicash we have also found that factors outside of the workplace, such as the credit crunch and family issues, can exacerbate the situation. However, no matter the cause, stress affects performance, productivity and safety; and every employer has a duty of care to look after their employees and prevent problems arising wherever possible. 
 
CSR & healthcare

One way of addressing health and wellbeing as part of CSR is to consider providing employee benefits such as corporate healthcare cash plans. Over the years we have adapted our products to reflect not only new legislation but also the changing culture of the workforce and the impact this has on health, lifestyle and wellbeing. Our plans centre around allowing organisations to support employees in three key areas: prevention, early intervention and cure. Four areas of the plan that fit well with the CSR and wellbeing agenda are counselling, complementary and alternative therapies, health screening and discounted gym membership.

Employee Assistance Programmes

Stress counselling can be provided through access to a telephone helpline and then face to face counselling sessions if required. The counsellors are equipped to offer a large spectrum of support. For example, Medicash ensures that all practitioners involved in this service are fully trained, qualified and experienced in their field and hold memberships of the relevant professional associations. Employees can use the service independently or it can be recommended to them by their manager, referral by a GP is not required.

The Management Standards for Work Related Stress set out by the HSE in 2004 provides guidelines for employers to help address the mental wellbeing of their employees and their duty of care responsibilities. By offering Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) which include professional stress counselling, employers can confidently meet a number of these standards.

Complementary and alternative therapies are now widely accepted as a valuable healthcare option. People are increasingly looking to non-invasive and drug free treatments to prevent health problems and treat the ones they are suffering from. We have seen a resurgence in this kind of approach to healthcare.

Employees should be offererd a choice of treatments and have the option to try different things to find what suits them. Complementary therapies such as physiotherapy, sports massage, osteopathy and chiropractic complement conventional medical treatment. While alternative therapies including acupuncture, allergy testing, homeopathy, Chinese medicines, reflexology, Bowen and Alexander techniques, Indian head massage and reiki are alternatives to conventional diagnosis and therapies. 

Prevention better than cure

There is a Chinese proverb that echoes the Medicash healthcare approach of prevention being better than cure: The superior doctor prevents sickness; the mediocre doctor attends to impending sickness; the inferior doctor treats actual sickness.

Providing health screening for a workforce is a major preventative strategy that can highlight potential problems, and then look to ways of solving them through a personal action plan. 

We all know taking regular exercise is an important part of keeping healthy, yet finding the motivation to do so can be a challenge. Being a member of a gym and working out around others creates motivation and also provides access to a variety of equipment. Most gyms also offer classes which you can add to your exercise routine meaning you won’t get bored. The social aspect of a gym and meeting new people is also a plus. Giving employees the option of benefiting from discounted gym membership and encouraging them to use it is an essential part of investing in their wellbeing and ‘me’ time.

At Medicash we recognise the importance of a positive approach to health and so provide employers with means to aid retention, improve employee loyalty and help employees get back to work more quickly when they are unwell. A good employer should want to look after their staff, reward them, ensure they stay in good health and encourage work/life balance. We have seen the positive results that employees do feel valued by the investment made in their health and wellbeing and give their best in return. The health and future success of your organisation depends on your employees; look after them.