Every generation is affected by the UK’s health challenges affecting the workforce. The healthy life expectancy for men and women across England is just 62 years , working parents are struggling with fatigue and burnout, and there has been a 77% increase in work-limiting conditions among 16–24-year-olds over the past decade alone .

Sickness absence is at a fifteen-year high . If current trends continue, the UK economy is projected to lose £66.3bn annually in lost productivity, due solely to long-term sick leave . 

As the Government-commissioned Keep Britain Working Review sets about identifying key recommendations to reduce health-related economic inactivity ready to announce this Autumn, research commissioned by AXA Health into improving the resilience of the UK population has identified the need to encourage a culture shift to increase take-up of existing employer-provided solutions.

Creating a culture focused on preventing people from getting sick, rather than reacting once they go absent, is critical. Increasing transparency on workplace health to drive change is a significant opportunity.

If large companies were to make wider disclosure of their approach to workforce health to the public, employees, investors and customers, this alone was anticipated to lead to economic benefits of £750m a year, due to a 25% increase in workplace health insurance products.

The right support at the right time

Essential to connecting employees to existing support is doing more to prevent health problems from reaching a point where it affects their ability to work.

This is particularly true of mental health issues, with 17 million working days lost in 2022/23 due to work-related stress, depression, and anxiety . Given the links between deteriorating mental health amongst young people and economic inactivity, there is also a case to be made for investing in the workforce of tomorrow with better investment in mental health in schools.

Independent research carried out by AXA Health found that even as little as a 5% fall in the cost related to child mental ill health, could save employers around £400 million from costs related to the knock-on effects on working age parents4. This has led AXA Health to put forward key recommendations to the government for improved mental health education and support in schools and colleges.

Mental health is just one example from several areas where there is benefit in preventing health problems from reaching a point that it affects an individual’s ability to work, with the right support at the right time.

Proactive access to physiotherapy and reasonable adjustments that allow people to remain in work while they recover from an MSK issue also has a vital role to play. Research into the benefits of early intervention revealed that 97% of employees given proactive access to physiotherapy were expected to still be in work a month later, compared to just 56% of those referred after a month of absence and 18% of those referred after six months of absence .

Self-empowerment of employees to drive prevention

Even when employees have access to resources and know what they need to do to stay healthy, intrinsic challenges remain. These may include:

  • A lack of time with 1 in 3 adults saying time constraints are a barrier to exercise  
  • The cost of living impacting healthy eating, where calories in healthy food cost over twice as much as calories in unhealthy food  
  • Increasing social isolation, which may have been exacerbated in recent years as we move towards an increasingly screen-focussed way of life 

Employers recognise these challenges. Different employers will have different views on where and how they focus on supporting customers with prevention. The AXA Health and Work – improving the resilience of the UK’s workforce report highlights several areas of good practice for empowering employees to prevent ill health. empowering employees to prevent ill health.

These include recognising the value of prevention - better than cure - and creating policies that help people to stay healthy, instead of just supporting them to recover when they get sick. Health improvement information must reach the right people in an effective way, and measure uptake of preventative support against relevant and impactful metrics.

The role of managers for driving wellbeing

Providing line managers with better and more consistent training on mental health has also been found to be a means of generating benefits to both individuals and business.

Managers have the power to create a positive working culture in a number of different ways, by making sure employees feel connected with the mission and focus of the organisation and purposeful work, developing employee-friendly policies, and empowering workers with greater autonomy in managing their health.

Developing a positive working environment is particularly important for younger workers, who are experiencing twice as many mental health problems as the over-55s . Managers need to support psychological safety in the workplace.

Employers have a huge opportunity to prevent the number of people falling out of work due to ill health. This will require moving beyond policies and procedures, to empowering managers and individuals, shifting the focus to prevention of illness and promotion of positive, healthy behaviours.

Embedding and prioritising health and wellbeing within organisational culture, through role-modelling, education and understanding, may have more significant effects than previously anticipated for employees’ productivity as well as experience. We all have a role to play in encouraging and creating the conditions for a psychologically safe environment and healthier outcomes, and all have an opportunity to reduce the social and economic cost of people of all ages leaving work due to ill health. The impact of delivering on this opportunity is ours to make. 

Unlock the value of wellbeing
For more information on how to unlock the value of wellbeing at your organisation, visit AXA Health’s Workplace Wellbeing Hub

How can AXA Health help?
By helping you to provide employees and managers with the right support at the right time, we can help you to reduce mental health issues in the following ways:

Seminars and workshops – to make open and safe conversations a part of your organisational culture
 
Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) – for employees to access immediate access to personalised wellbeing support on any issues affecting them
 
Mental health strategy development – to help you devise an annual strategy for creating a workplace culture where people can thrive
 

As featured on theHRDirector website.