The Department of Heath’s Health at Work review presented to Parliament in November last year reported that up to 140 million working days are lost to sick leave every year- amounting to a loss of £15billion in economic output.
Most of us will suffer some form of illness during the course of our working life that will render us absent from the workplace. While it is not possible for any employer to completely eliminate sickness absenteeism, there are steps that can be taken that may help reduce employee absence from work, such as the introduction of business health insurance benefits.
In return for a regular premium business health insurance can offer employees access to private medical care for certain acute conditions. The benefits of private medical care include flexible access to treatment, making it easier to fit around work operations, and the bypassing NHS waiting lists which can help your employees get back on their feet and back to work more quickly.
It’s not just a loss of productivity that businesses are facing either, but sick pay costs money too- an estimated £9billion is spent on sick pay, associated costs and the “indirect costs of managing a business while people are off sick”, according to the Health at Work review.
There’s no doubt about it, sickness leave costs businesses money and productivity. Offering business health insurance could potentially reduce absenteeism, saving your business money on the associated costs. It can also boost staff morale and loyalty by letting your employees know that their health matters to you.
Business health insurance can be offered as part of a comprehensive benefits or flexible benefits package, or alternatively you can choose to offer business health insurance on a voluntary sign-up basis requiring employee to-ups. Even though employees will need to contribute the cost is likely to be far lower than taking out separate individual policies.
Regardless of the method you choose to finance your business health insurance plan it is usually purchased as a group policy and will pay out for a range of acute conditions should any named employees fall ill. Policies do not pay out for all conditions so you should be aware of the small print before proceeding.
Finding the right health insurance plan for your company can be a complex process and will depend of a range of factors from employee demographic to company size and budget. You may wish to speak to a business health insurance advisor who can help guide you through your options.