Health &
wellbeing
There’s more
to just being
healthy at work
Where the US leads, the UK generally
follows and this certainly rings true when
it comes to health and wellbeing. Over
the past 5 years within UK companies
we have moved from the traditional
set up and approach to healthcare:
segregated services whose purpose
is largely to treat those who are sick,
to an “integrated” and coordinated
system where the focus is much wider
and focused on ‘wellness’ (keeping the
healthy, healthy).
Faced with more and more discussion
and debate on this subject, I have
become rather fascinated with it. For my
sins, I am a rational scientist at heart
and while the arguments sound hugely
plausible there seems to be a dearth of
statistically significant data to support
the notion that implementing a health
and wellbeing strategy is worthwhile in
the UK corporate environment.
As an aside, we must examine what
is meant by ‘worthwhile’. However
paternalistic and caring a company may
be, few Finance Directors will sign off
an initiative costing a significant sum of
money if they cannot see the business
benefit. Undoubtedly, such wellness
schemes will benefit employees and their
families but I would argue that this is a
positive by-product rather than an easily
calculable financial benefit. Needless to
say the marketing machines focus on the
benefit to the individuals rather than the
proven return on investment.
within the marketplace who happen to
offer a health and wellbeing ‘solution’
within their armoury of products and
services? Surely one should not blindly
accept that an idea which sounds
reasonable actually works without asking
for the proof?
Don’t get me wrong, it is without doubt
that health and wellbeing works as a
strategy in the US. There are countless
academic, objective, statistical papers
proving its worth (5:1 ROI is eminently
achievable) and I have witnessed
first hand the impact it can have. My
concerns surround how transferable this
is to the UK – be it the different culture,
healthcare system or availability of state
provision... it simply may not be a ‘liftand-shift’ procedure.
I am sounding like a non-believer. I am
not, I fundamentally believe in health
and wellbeing as a concept within the
States and I want it to work over here.
That said, until the UK has played catchup with our American cousins, I shall
remain a frustrated agnostic looking for
hard financial proof before I become fully
converted!
By Dan Wade
wpa.org.uk/danielwade
Would it be entirely cynical of me to
suggest that those who are extolling the
virtues of wellness are those providers
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