"With employees becoming more reliant on workplace healthcare, simply cutting benefits risks making existing gaps worse."
- Ian Talbot - Healix Health
New research from Healix Health's Hidden Workplace Healthcare Gap report has found that healthcare employers are under the most pressure to reduce workplace health provision, despite almost one in five of their employees already saying their benefits do not meet their needs.
77% of healthcare employers expect rising costs to reduce their workplace healthcare provision this year, the highest proportion of any sector surveyed and above the 66% average across all employers. At the same time, 19% of healthcare employees say their current benefits do not meet their needs.
Healix Health says that the findings point to a balancing act for healthcare employers. Pressure to control costs is growing, but workplace healthcare is also becoming more important as access to NHS care remains under strain, with 56% of employees saying this has made them more reliant on workplace healthcare.
The wider findings from the report suggest the challenge is not simply how much employers spend, but whether that investment is translating into support employees can actually use, with employers often judging their healthcare offer by the benefits they have bought or added, while employees are more likely to judge it on whether they can find the right support, access it easily and get help when they need it.
Workplace healthcare varies by sector
The research found significant differences between sectors. In manufacturing, 77% of employers say workplace healthcare support has improved over the past year, compared with just 32% of employees, highlighting how differently businesses and their staff can view the same healthcare offering.
At the other end of the scale, 94% of employees in the IT & Telecoms sector say they are confident they can access timely healthcare when they need it, while 77% say their benefits are easy to use and 85% have used their workplace healthcare benefits, the highest reported usage of any sector.
The report suggests this could partly reflect the sector’s stronger digital infrastructure, with employees more likely to already use platforms where workplace benefits can be easily hosted and accessed, an approach other sectors could emulate by hosting healthcare benefits on the platforms employees already use day-to-day, making support easier to find at the point of need.
It points to the importance of not only what employers provide, but how simple that support is for employees to find and use.
READ MORE: Half of employees call health initiatives a 'tick-box exercise.'
"Healthcare organisations understand better than most what happens when people can’t get the care they need, which makes it particularly concerning that they are also under the greatest pressure to reduce support for their own workforce," Ian Talbot, CEO at Healix Health, said.
"With employees becoming more reliant on workplace healthcare, simply cutting benefits risks making existing gaps worse.
"That doesn’t necessarily mean employers need to spend more. The focus should be on making sure existing budgets are working properly by understanding which benefits employees actually use and value, making them easier to access and removing any unnecessary overlap. That way, organisations can manage costs without weakening the support their people rely on."
