More than half (54%) of people in the UK have worked while unwell, in pain or struggling with their mental health in the past month, according to YuLife.
This was the headline from the insurer’s analysis of more than 67 million responses from 70,000 employees to a questionnaire that updates each time they each give a health check in. This has led to almost half of respondents having six months of medical history to analyse.
The research also highlighted that more than one in four employees (28%) had worked while ill several times or most days, rising to 34% among those aged under 35.
Employees experiencing severe chronic pain were three times as likely to take time off for a health condition, and more than twice as likely to work through ill health.
Of the around 42,000 people who flagged stress, sleep, mood, pain or mental health risk since February, 87% received a personalised recommendation within a day and 47% went on to act on one.
YuLife chief executive Tal Gilbert (pictured) said that keeping people healthy and in work requires a much better understanding of workforce health, how it is changing and how organisations compare.
“Right now, we don’t have that shared intelligence at a national level.
“That matters even more as artificial intelligence [AI] changes the pace and nature of work. Businesses are rightly measuring what AI means for productivity. We need to be just as rigorous about understanding how workforce health is changing.”
