1. Affordability
According to government research, the biggest barrier for Smaller Businesses in providing health and wellbeing support is lack of money (52%).
With limited budgets, Smaller Businesses are equally likely to choose a preventative health and wellbeing scheme as a scheme targeted at employees with health conditions – because it’s a more controllable ongoing cost.
With something like insurance not only is the initial outlay more expensive per employee, but in year 2 and 3 costs can go up 15 -20%, making it something that isn’t always economically viable – or only for a few members of staff. Meanwhile cash plans can reimburse employees for things like glasses and eye tests, but don’t often extend to cover the sort of health conditions impacting sickness absence rates.
Health assessments are a fixed annual cost, and an affordable way to deliver tangible health and wellbeing benefits to every member of staff.
2. Real results
For Smaller Businesses, the impact of having an individual out of work due to illness or injury is far bigger than it is in a large company. That means keeping people well and working really is key – and health assessments are proven to work to keep workforces in tip top condition.
After their tests, Bluecrest Wellness customers go on to make healthier life choices – for instance losing weight (38%), exercising more (37%) and eating better (32%). Eating healthily, maintaining a healthy weight and moving regularly are all ways to avoid the two very biggest reasons for sickness absences – minor illnesses, accounting for 29% of absences in 2022, and musculoskeletal issues accounting for 10.9% of absences.
3. Data
It’s often hard for Smaller Businesses to see and evidence the return on their health and wellbeing investments in terms of things like increased engagement, reduced absences, and better health. One of the advantages of health assessments for Smaller Businesses is that everyone can access them immediately irrespective of whether they are experiencing health concerns so the value to the employee is immediate and tangible. They may also provide data that can be used to help secure buy-in for future health and wellbeing initiatives.
Modern health assessments come with built in AI, and can show what health issues are impacting a workforce, trends, areas for improvement and intervention. Companies can get an overall picture of employee health, plan targeted campaigns, and track their progress year-on-year. If a health and wellbeing strategy is in its infancy, getting that baseline data can be a crucial kick-off point.
4. Easy admin
The second biggest barrier for Smaller Businesses in providing health and wellbeing services, cited by 49%, is TIME.
Small businesses don’t have entire departments poised to research options, fill in medical questionnaires for each individual, and administrate complicated schemes. The advantage of health assessments is that they’re easy to set up and manage. At Bluecrest Wellness, for instance, we take on the job of communicating with staff, inviting people to their local clinic, and compiling individual and company reports. So it’s light touch, hassle free, and as easy as we can make it to set-up and access.
5. Competitive advantage
At an Smaller Business, your people ARE your business. Attracting the very best people, and keeping them in role is crucial – and the benefits package on offer can be what sways people to come on board and stay on board.
With more and more people concerned about the NHS’s ability to treat them, health benefits are more popular than ever. According to the Independent Healthcare Providers Network, half of Brits now feel very or quite positive about private healthcare, rising to more than 70% of people who’ve actually had the chance to use it.
Being the business that’s offering the health back-up, and filling the very real prevention gap left by a struggling public health system, is going to put Smaller Businesses ahead of their competitors.
