Only one in four employers are offering emotional support such as counselling to employees, while a similarly small proportion of organisations tailor their benefits to specific workforce demographics, studies have found.
Research from group risk industry body Grid among 501 HR decision makers and 1,212 employees at UK businesses found while flexible working was the most popular benefit on offer to prevent ill health, only 25% of organisations offered counselling.
Next on the list came occupational health (20%) followed by mental health first aiders (19%), access to an employee assistance programme (17%), initiatives to help staff manage stress and mental health, (16%), and discounted gym membership, bikes or fitness benefits (16%).
These were followed by support for staff with caring responsibilities, lifestyle support, physiotherapy, and access to private medical insurance (PMI), all offered by 15% of employers.
But the research also found 18% of employers did not offer any support for prevention of ill health at all.
Desire to tailor benefits
Meanwhile, research from Towergate Health & Protection also released today, showed barely one in five (22%) employers targeted benefits to specific demographics in their workforce, dependent on their age, lifestyle and other risk factors.
The survey of 500 HR decision makers found the majority of employers (57%) offered exactly the same benefits to all staff, and 18% base their benefits offering solely on seniority of staff.
However, half of employers (49%) say they would like to target employee benefits to different demographics but find this too complicated.
More than three quarters of those surveyed (78%) said it would be valuable to have a better understanding of the risk profile of the health and wellbeing of their staff.
The main reason given was to enable employers to tailor health and wellbeing support to help keep employees healthy and in work, stated by 49%. A further 42% said it would mean they could tailor their health and wellbeing support to the specific needs of their workforce.
Aiding recruitment and retention was the reason 39% of employers would use risk profiling, while 38% felt it would help to meet corporate and social responsibilities.
For 32% of employers, the advantage of risk profiling was that if they were only able to offer a limited range of health and wellbeing support, it would help them to prioritise what was most relevant.
