When one of the 19,000 employees of British energy group Centrica calls the illness, the company’s labour health services take action.
Engineers with back problems by securing the boiler in a cramped space can be referred for physical therapy within five days. Call center workers cracking from dealing with distraught customers receive mental health support within 48 hours. Without exception, all workers will receive a survey on their diet, weight, sleep habits and lifestyle on the first day of their absence.
When the company began developing its system almost a decade ago, some staff discovered it got in the way, acknowledging Sandra Dyball, director of health, happiness and benefits at Centrica. However, she argues that rapid access to treatments that are barely available in the NHS will significantly reduce the absence of illness and become a “great tool to attract talent.”
“We had great feedback. There was one guy who drank 18 cans of coke a day and was worried about why he couldn’t sleep,” she said.
The UK minister hopes that more employers will invest in preventive services like this. Official data show that 2.8 million working-age adults in the UK say they are not working because of their long-term status, and over 200,000 people specifically left their jobs for health reasons in 2023-24.
It’s easier than that to bring people with illnesses and disabilities back to the labour market. The labor government was facing a backbench uprising over plans to cut health-related benefits, hoping it would spur the job of claimants. These at-risk plans make it even more important to stop people from dropping out of work when they first get sick.
The risk of further spills is severe. A fifth of respondents in a recent survey by the Lancaster University Job Foundation thought they were in poor health and 6% would end up quitting their jobs within 12 months as a result. Almost a quarter of those aged 16 to 24 said they had poor mental health.
“We’ve seen a lot of effort into this research,” said Alice Martin, the foundation’s research director. “The risk remains.”
However, most employers do not have the ability to provide staff with the support they need to stay at work when they first begin to struggle with their health.
According to Charlie Mayfield, former boss of John Lewis Retail Group, who leads the government’s review of how to hire people with illnesses and disabilities, the “rising wave” of illness health and disability is “landing on a system that is particularly suitable for or never designed to address it.”
In the UK, employees with health problems usually go to see overworked GPs. GPs lack the time and expertise to explore how they can return to work. Instead, they make them sick – often repeated – there is little contact from the line manager, and many are left at the Fester at home.
Mayfield contrasts this laissez-faire approach with a structured system of countries such as the Netherlands. Employers must continue to pay wages for up to two years after an employee becomes ill.
In addition to this financial obligation, there is a clear process for employers and employees to agree and adhere to the workplace plan.
GPs are solely responsible for patients, but the doctors of this company, or “Bedrijfsarts,” consider his duties to be “60% for individuals, 30% for company, 10% for society.”
This will be a major cultural change in the UK workplace. Employees are often wary of disclosing conditions that could compromise their careers, and are worried that line managers will say the wrong thing.
For occupational health to be effective, both staff and bosses need to “believe that it works,” said one of the multinational chief medical officers who refused to be nominated. Although interventions were sometimes used “as a mechanism for managing people,” he said, “in good organizations, it is considered independent advice to do the right thing.”
Large employers are increasingly filing lawsuits to strengthen health regulations.
Adam Davison, director of Corporate Affairs Group at Holland & Barrett, says staff turnover has fallen from 40% to 26% in 2021 as health and wellness retailers overhauled their health programs.
He believes this is primarily for preventive health services packages, ranging from free folic acid for future parents to wearable fans for store clerks with menopause, virtual GP appointments, physical therapy and mental health advice.
“We’re a well-being company. …We can’t talk to customers about prevention without doing that for our staff,” said Davison, who views healthcare as part of a broader benefits package that includes wages, difficult loans and efforts to tackle the rise in retail crime.
Justin Ash, chief executive of hospital operator Spire Healthcare, says occupational health is currently one of the fastest growing areas of the business as employers seek to reduce the absence of illness and the costs of hiring.
“The NHS doesn’t prioritize employment. Employers give people KPIs to get people back to work.
However, costs are a major barrier to expanding occupational hygiene. It is funded directly by insurance, employers, through donations from employees and taxpayers.
Low-cost Employer Assistance Program – Provide advice through chatbots, apps, helplines and sometimes counseling sessions for those who are most needy – typically in the UK market, it costs around £5-15 per year per employee.
By combining this with annual health checks, training managers on mental health and flu vaccination can cost between £1,500 and £5,000 a year. Additionally, students may pay between £300 and £500 per employee for a student therapy course, or up to £1,600 per employee for treatment in cases of moderate to severe anxiety or depression.
Even large companies such as Centrica, which pay directly for services through the Healthcare Trust, the need to handle tax benefits can affect recruiting low-wage staff, says Dyball. Centrica’s opt-in rate is 95%.
Meanwhile, small businesses offering occupational hygiene are more likely to have a bare bone employee assistance program.
Sam Atwell, Policy and Research Manager for Health Foundation Think-Tank, says experts are “often extremely skeptical” about how valuable these more minimal EAPs are, given that they provide more than online advice.
By fall, Mayfield will receive a recommendation from the Minister on what a more stringent system will look like and how to pay for it. However, he made it clear that he has not seen a complete Dutch model that significantly increases the financial pressures of employers, as viable for the UK.
But both Martin and Atwell warn that if the real issues for employees are unmanageable workloads, bad bosses, or difficult home life, the impact of occupational health provision will be limited.
Martin said it will give workers more control over a few hours of their place and time, increase flexibility in job design and allow staff to attend medical appointments during opening hours.
“The most important thing is the culture of the organization. If it is trusted and open. “Employers can make sure that people are not sick.”
