Employers need to act earlier to reduce the £85bn they collectively lose each year to poor health in their workforce, the Association of Medical Insurers and Intermediaries (AMII) health and wellbeing summit has heard.
Unum UK head of product proposition Clare Lusted told delegates employers were living with the consequences of growing workplace absence, such as lost productivity.
“I suspect that many organisations in this room may already be feeling some version of that pressure. This is why it matters,” she said.
Lusted argued the answer to solving this problem was earlier intervention, which could help keep people in work.
“Act before a short absence becomes a long one. Act before someone loses confidence, routine or connection. Act before support becomes harder and less effective,” Lusted (pictured) said.
Too big to ignore
“The scale of the issue is too big to ignore,” Lusted said, pointing to the Keep Britain Working review of what needs to change to halt the rising number of people leaving work due to ill health or disability.
Indeed, the report states that one in five people of working age are unemployed, while 2.8 million are out of work due to health issues.
“This is not just a health conversation or a policy conversation; it is clearly a business issue,” she said.
Not separate worlds
Lusted described Keep Britain Working as important because it moves the debate on.
“It asks us to stop treating work and health as separate worlds and start thinking practically about how you prevent people falling out of work in the first place,” she said.
“From an adviser perspective, the commercial impact is significant. There is an immediate business angle around pensions, productivity, resilience and the cost of doing nothing.”
Lusted believes that the earlier action was taken on poor health in the workplace the more successful it was likely to be.
“People moving from struggling in work to being out of work does not happen overnight,” Lusted said.
“It happens because conversations do not happen early enough and support does not arrive early enough.
“The shift the review is trying to drive is simple: act earlier. While people are still in work is where the biggest opportunity sits.
“This is the space we operate in every day, that intersection of health and work. We see first-hand how much difference timing, confidence and practical support can make to outcomes.”
Better outcomes
Lusted said employers cared, but were worried about getting it wrong, so they waited.
“This is what needs to change,” she added.
“Ultimately, the goal is not just to get better at helping people get back into the work; it is to stop more people falling out of work in the first place.
“If we get that right we will get better outcomes for individuals, greater resilience and productivity for employers,” Lusted concluded.
