Providing a safe and secure working environment for staff is unquestionably a basic prerequisite for improved productivity. But a survey conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit indicates that those firms that do provide additional health benefits and incentives also happen to outperform the market.
In a global poll of 554 executives, the proportion reporting that their organization had performed “significantly better” than others in their sector over the past three years also tend to rate their companies higher on health policies and practices than those that reported poor performances. In general, companies that performed well offer a higher percentage of benefits and incentives across the board than low-performing companies, and 53% of respondents from high-performing companies report an increase in the emphasis on employee health, compared with only 23% of low-performing companies.
Companies generally recognise that looking after the health of their employees is good business practice. For example, healthcare insurance is subsidised by a majority of companies (64%) surveyed. However, about three-quarters (74%) of managers also believe that healthy behavior should be subsidised by their employers. Companies, however, appear not to agree—providing healthy food and drink options, access to exercise and help in quitting smoking are among the least-emphasised areas in company health policies.
This notion of proactively enabling healthy behavior is catching on in the insurance industry too. Discovery, a South African healthcare insurer, is just one example of a firm that actively incentivizes its members to engage in healthy behavior—in exchange for a set of rewards. The result? Healthier members, reduced claims and greater profits (see case study).
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