Vitality has called for organisations to be mandated to report on the health of their workforces and their impact on society, with key performance indicators (KPIs) to be tied to outcomes.
The insurer urged regulators and governments to put a greater onus on making organisations accountable for their role in the health of society and preventing illness.
At the launch of the UN Environment Programme’s Principles for Sustainable Insurance (PSI) report, Vitality UK CEO Neville Koopowitz said: “It is incumbent on governments and insurers to actually start making sure that we focus more, not just on talking about prevention, but funding prevention,”
“I do think regulators need to start playing much more of a role in how employers and society behaves in regard to this.
“A great example is around reporting from an employer perspective. Companies should be forced to report on the preventative measures for their staff, for the health of their staff.
“We’re always worrying rightfully about cyber risk or other emerging risks – but the risk of your workforce not being productive because they are not in good health has a massive, massive impact, not only on your organisation, but on society.
“I think there is a big amount of work to be done around the collaboration of all these stakeholders about driving the prevention agenda,” he added.
This was echoed by Vitality chief sustainability officer Deepak Jobanputra (pictured) who highlighted the massive issue of demand for healthcare far outstripping supply, and the potential crises and resulting inequalities which will affect the poorest and most vulnerable hardest.
“I’d love to see a standing agenda item on every single board that says the health of all of your key stakeholders, starting with your employees, your members and even wider,” he said.
“If we start giving that consideration at board level with KPIs and consequences, it would be taken much more seriously.
“I think that is fundamentally important and it’s not an emotional plea at all I think it’s a requirement.”