How preventative healthcare can help your workforce thrive

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, we’re all more health-conscious than ever. While this can only be a good thing, companies that are unable to meet growing employee demands for effective health and wellbeing benefits may find themselves on the losing side of the war for talent, with a whopping 40% of UK workers saying they would leave their job for better benefits. 

In addition to this, in 2022, around 2.5 million people reported that they were no longer working due to long-term sickness, up from around 2 million in 2019. A range of factors could be influencing this increase, but ballooning NHS waiting times, long COVID and an ageing workforce are thought to be to blame.

While ill health and holding down a job may seem like more of a personal problem than a business one, it can in fact have a huge impact on your business, causing costly disruptions – the estimated cost of just filling a vacancy is estimated to be anywhere from £6,125 for low responsibility roles, to up to £19,000 for a manager role, for example. For more senior roles, recruitment agencies can charge between 20-30% of the salary, meaning the fees alone for filling a role with a salary of £120,000 would amount to between £24,000 to £36,000.

With a global recession looming, it’s more critical than ever to keep health-related business disruptions to a minimum and to keep your best people at their best. Find out how investing in proactive, preventative healthcare can help your business save money and retain talent in 2023.

Good health is good for business

Research shows that businesses lose an estimated £550 per employee yearly due to sick days. With larger companies of 1000+ employees having an average of 8 sick days per employee, and smaller businesses averaging 3.8 days off sick per employee, it’s easy to see how financial losses due to illness can quickly add up.

In addition to time off sick, low productivity levels due to presenteeism (working while unwell) are an additional suck on resources with a recent study finding it causes businesses to lose over £4,000 per employee every year.

Although many common illnesses are preventable or easily treated when caught in their early stages, a lack of access to preventative healthcare means that many are diagnosed at more advanced stages where invasive, long-term treatments are needed. Not only does this have a huge impact on the individual, but it can also cause high levels of disruption and incur huge costs for the business they work for.

Take something as simple as vitamin D deficiency, for example. Although low levels of vitamin D can be easily remedied with a daily supplement, many people are unaware that they have or are at risk of a deficiency. 

If left untreated, it can lead to symptoms such as fatigue, aches and pains, low mood and weakened immunity, which can affect productivity levels at work, and even lead to more days off sick.

On the other end of the spectrum, as well as the emotional impact it can have on staff members, a diagnosis of cancer within your team can cause a lot of disruption, having a huge effect on your business. In fact, research has found that 58% of people living with cancer had to change their employment when diagnosed, with a need for reduced working hours and pausing work altogether being the top 2 factors in their decision. 

In providing your team with preventative healthcare, you can help them avoid certain illnesses and spot the signs of disease at earlier, more treatable stages, protecting both their health and the health of your business. 

Why is preventative healthcare so important to employee wellbeing?

Preventive health screening has long been known to play an essential role in the early detection and effective treatment of serious diseases such as cancer, heart disease and nutritional deficiencies. 

For example, when bowel cancer is diagnosed at the earliest stage (stage 1), 97% of patients survive for 5 years or more. However, with later diagnosis (at stage 4), this drops to just 7%. This is because the disease is much harder to treat once it’s reached later stages, so therapies are less effective. 

In addition to helping cancer patients live longer, preventative healthcare and early treatment can help them get back to leading a normal life, including going back to work. One study found that almost 70% of patients returned to work within 2 years after the start of their sick leave period. 

Similarly, while cardiovascular disease is the second highest cause of premature death in England, up to 85% of cases are preventable by modifying risk factors.

As well as preventing premature death, early detection of cardiovascular disease can allow people to continue working while managing treatments and lifestyle changes, which will help them prevent disease progression and lead a healthier, longer life.

While most healthcare benefits only take a reactive approach to health, preventative healthcare works to reduce the risk of illness in the first place and allows for the treatment of health problems at earlier stages. 

By providing teams with a preventative healthcare solution, alongside their regular private medical insurance or NHS GP service, businesses can give their people the tools they need to identify health risks sooner and receive more impactful, less invasive treatments than they otherwise would have.

Plus, as a result of helping your people stay well and have more successful health outcomes, you also minimise disruption and cost for your business due to absence, low productivity, and role vacancies. 

How Qured can help your business

Now more than ever, your health benefits need to serve a truly modern workforce.

Our first-of-its-kind smart healthcare benefit is designed to keep your people healthy, instead of treating them when they’re ill.

We bring together advanced pain-free testing, cutting-edge diagnostic technology and ongoing clinician-led support and referrals to private medical insurers and NHS GPs, to help your people prevent illness and take control of their health.

Leaving no one behind, each personalised screening cycle continuously engages your whole company on a journey to better health, no matter their age or gender, so you can minimise disruption to your business across the board. 

Showing your employees you really care about protecting their health and preventing illness, our proactive healthcare solution gives you the edge you need to attract and retain talent. 

What's more, we also give you all the tools you need to act quickly to protect the health of your business: our workforce health analytics supply you with anonymised insights into your team’s wellbeing, so you can identify and address issues and trends within your company.

Our tiered pricing options allow you to choose the level of benefit you’d like to offer your team based on your budget and employee demographics. Plus, you’ll always get a return on your investment, as you’ll only ever pay for active members*. 

In addition, easily track your reduced absences and costs related to major illnesses on your Qured dashboard, so you know you’re getting bang for your wellbeing buck.

Learn more about what we can do for you and your people. 

*minimums apply