World Health Day: Shining the spotlight on employee benefits

World Health Day, celebrated on 7 April, highlights the variety of health issues affecting people across the globe – including employee health and wellbeing.

This is something that has been recently pushed further into the spotlight.  

Current data from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development shows that UK employees are now taking an average of 9.4 sick days per year¹ – the highest level it has been in over a decade. 

Pre-pandemic, that figure sat closer to 5.8 days² – a significant jump in a relatively short space of time. Across the UK, this translates to 148.9 million working days lost annually due to sickness³. For larger businesses, that’s a big number. For SMEs, the impact of even just one or two long-term absences can be immediate, as: 

• There are fewer people to absorb the workload. 
• Disruption to day-to-day operations increases. 
• Pressure is maximised on teams that are often already stretched. 

However, what lies behind this increase is just as significant – if not, more so – than the numbers themselves. 

Mental health, for example, is now one of the leading causes of long-term absence, with around four in 10 employers citing it as a key issue¹. At the same time, short-term absence continues to be driven by everyday illness, stress and burnout, with minor illnesses still cited by many employers⁴. 

In other words, declining employee health is not one single problem, but a combination of pressures building over time. For employers, that makes it difficult to manage with reactive solutions alone. 

This is where employee benefits can make a big difference

As shared in our previous article on attracting and retaining talent through employee benefits, there is a tendency for businesses to accumulate a range of employee benefits over time based on immediate employee and business needs. However, when it comes to employee wellbeing, this approach is starting to fall behind. 

The more effective course of action for employers is to review the benefits they currently have available and use them to actively manage absence and protect productivity. The focus is shifting towards: 

• Early access to support (virtual GPs, mental health services). 
• Faster, whole-of-workforce intervention before issues escalate. 
• Benefits that actively help employees stay in (or return to) work. 

Many employers, particularly SMEs, may be concerned about the cost of implementing these benefits. However, the cost of absence is often significantly higher – and not just financially. There is also a risk of lost output, lost time and (in the worst-case scenario) lost people. 

Replacing an employee alone can easily run into five figures once recruitment, onboarding and lost productivity are factored in⁵. For SMEs, that’s not insignificant. 

Prevention is where the real value sits

One of the core themes behind World Health Day is prevention, and this is where many employers still have an opportunity. It’s the difference between stepping in once an employee is already off work and giving them access to support early enough to prevent absence altogether. 

Benefits like Group Income Protection are a good example of how this is evolving. The benefits are no longer just about paying a claim; they are increasingly including early intervention and rehabilitation support designed to keep employees connected to the workplace. That shift, from protection to prevention, is where real value is being created. 

The gap isn’t always the benefits: it’s the employee experience

A common issue, particularly in SMEs, is not the absence of benefits, but the lack of engagement with them. Employees either don’t know what’s available to them, don’t understand it, or only think about it when it’s too late. 

That creates a disconnect, as employers are investing in support that isn’t being fully used. Closing that gap doesn’t require a complete overhaul, but it does require clearer, more consistent communication. 

In the current environment, doing the minimum is becoming increasingly expensive. Those employers who are getting ahead aren’t necessarily spending more, they’re being more focussed on how they support their people now, rather than still offering something that may have worked five or ten years ago. The workforce has changed, and so should the Employee Benefits offering. 

References

1. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Health and Wellbeing at Work Survey (latest edition) 
2. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, historical absence data (pre-pandemic benchmarks) 
3. Office for National Statistics, Sickness absence in the UK labour market (latest release) 
4. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, absence drivers and causes data 
5. UK Government, Keep Britain Working Review (cost of employee turnover and absence) 

Attivo Financial Ltd (FRN 497130) is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for the provision of regulated financial advice. Some services we provide, such as employee benefits advice, are not regulated activities and are therefore not covered by the FCA regulatory framework.