From creche to healthcare, companies have renewed a social contract to staff
Companies should start considering their responsibility to provide good quality healthcare for their staff, whether that’s supporting them with mental health, on-site creches or eldercare, writes Eliza Filby
It is a familiar scramble; on the stroke of 8am you dial the number of your local GP surgery only to find that you’re 18th in the queue. There’s now no way you’ll be in the office for that 10am meeting, so it looks like it’s another WFH day. But could this rigmarole soon become a thing of the past?
Well, that may depend on where you work and, ultimately, how far the government is prepared to go with its latest consultation on the role employers have in looking after the health of their workforce. Health benefits at work are nothing new; most major employers offer some form of support such as private health insurance, as do the main trade unions.
There has of course been a growing emphasis on mental health and wellbeing in the workplace. Now the government is considering tax incentives to encourage employers to go further in the field of occupational health. The government’s incentive here is pretty obvious; supporting the unwell back into work, relieving the NHS and, crucially, keeping older people in the workforce.
And there’s no doubt that this is an urgent issue. A new report by the Health Foundation forecasts that nine million people will be living with a chronic or major illness by 2040. The report’s authors call for urgent action to improve the health of the nation which, left unchecked, will place an intolerable burden on health and social care services. So could businesses do more?
Not long ago occupational health meant getting a leaflet about how to sit in a chair and how to position your monitor. Things have come a long way since then, not least post-pandemic when employee wellbeing and health shot up to the top of corporate risk registers. Offering private health insurance is fairly standard in lots of companies, and many now offer access to private GPs, too. Could we see this trend expanding, including among SMEs who represent the vast majority of UK employers, and who tend not to have the resources to deliver such benefits? Perhaps new office buildings in the future could feature on-site healthcare provision, paid for via charges levied on the building’s occupants? It may get people in the building more often.
But there’s a more compelling reason for employers to consider their responsibilities. The pandemic triggered a reassessment of employers’ responsibilities to their employees to such an extent that the conversation around flexible working is extending well beyond the question of where you work. In fact, a truly hybrid approach to work involves considering how our professional life can support aspects of our personal life. This is why major companies are increasingly offering aid at different life-stages, from fertility help to menopausal guidance, from on-site creches to eldercare support. In an age of increased professional mobility it is a way to keep your workers loyal and, in the age of multigenerational care responsibilities and the dual income juggle, it is a way to keep your workers sane.
Sceptics may view state-supported workplace healthcare as undermining the NHS, but for business it is a further opportunity to rewrite the social contract between employer and employee in an age when retaining talent is an absolute priority.
Employers should certainly think creatively about the support they offer to staff, and the government is right to recognise this in the tax system. But here comes the caveat; if taxpayers’ money is deployed in support of more healthcare provision in the office, what happens to the self-employed, delivery drivers, farmers and contract workers? The government cannot risk exacerbating a division that already exists, whereby access to good healthcare is dependent on having a good job. This is especially true if taxpayers’ money is only benefitting the well-employed. Employers should rightly expand their supportive benefits to their workers whether through childcare, eldercare or healthcare, but it can only be part of the solution to improving the nation’s health.