CEOs and company executives – as a whole – often miss out on the bottom line benefits of employee healthcare programmes, which is why we’re making it clear that they should be a strategic necessity.

Seen as a “nice-to-have”, managing employee healthcare is often overlooked rather than focussed on. However, Business Health Partners has come up with arguments so compelling that they will entice you into benefits you didn’t even know your bottom line was missing.

Impact of Cause and Effect

Boosted physical and psychological wellbeing in employees can realise a return through improved productivity levels and workplace commitment.

The cause and effect relationship in successfully managing employee welfare is clear, particularly through company reputation. Promoting a strong sense of employee wellbeing and improvements in their employees’ personal health, companies are setting themselves up as “employers of choice”.

Looking after current employees ensures there is interest from both potential employees and potential business associates and customers who hold employee wellbeing of high importance.

Financial “Knock On” Factor

Of course, we’re discussing improvements to your bottom line and profit is a major part of this. Don’t worry, we’ve counted the ways and here they are:

• Effective healthcare provision can result in measurable savings in the costs of benefits provision.
• On-site physiotherapists and medical practitioners – Business Health Partners included! – will reduce time lost for travelling and offers a convenient bonus for employees.
• Income protection insurers will look favourably if you provide evidence of a fall in sickness absence rates – you may be offered premium reductions!
• A 2012 CIPD study found that sickness absence cost an average of £600 per employee
• Considerable cost reductions can be made through less sick payments and replacement staffing costs, as well as the advantage of improved customer satisfaction – particularly for customer-facing companies – and workforce morale.

Measurements and Metrics That Make Bottom Line Improvements Obvious

If you’re thinking that occupational health management could be improved in your company and you’re interested in implementing an improved system, try these things first to ensure you’re getting exactly what you should be out of it.

Measuring success can only be done by knowing what the numbers were before you implemented an occupational health programme, so here is our advice:

• HR departments and management teams can earn an ROI with occupational health if they adopt suitable methodologies – on the advice of professional bodies – as well as having these returns measured and quantified.
• Employers interested in the statistics should look to measure sickness absence before a healthcare programme is introduced / revived and again when it’s had the chance to impact the company.
• Useful calculations include:
  • ‘Lost Time Rate’ – measuring the percentage of total time lost to absence’;
  • ‘Frequency Rate’ – the average number of absences per employee;
  • ‘Bradford factor’ – measuring the number of spells of absence.

Business Health Partners says…

As many companies – both SMEs and national corporations – battle with the recovering economic climate, saving money is key to most business plans for the foreseeable future. However, a small expenditure on healthcare can create huge boosts, not only on your company morale and reputation, but, on that crucial bottom line.

Good occupational health services are good business. Companies integrating such services into their business management can expect productivity benefits which include:

• Safer working methods that allow work to be done quicker, with fewer people.
• Reduced rates of accidents, incidents and ill health – potentially seeing sickness absence being halved.
• Maximising levels of recruitment, motivation and retention of skilled staff.

At BHP we provide various healthcare services for businesses of all kinds, with decades of combined experience in the health industry, we’re passionate about sharing our knowledge with you.

If you’d like to know more about the occupational health services, training and consultancy that we provide, why not call 07720 956789 or if you like what you hear, follow us at @BusinessHealth_.