Research from GRiD, the industry body for the group risk sector, also found that 57% of employers provide health and wellbeing support after a set number of weeks’ absence, and 33% provide it from day one.

Katharine Moxham, spokesperson for GRiD, said: “The goal should be to mitigate the number of sick days by prioritising preventative measures, but with rehabilitation readily available too.”

However, although the driving priority may not be prevention, many employers do offer health and wellbeing benefits that do offer preventative support. Prevention can include support for all areas of health and wellbeing, including physical, mental, social and financial.

Support for mental health, such as initiatives to help staff manage stress and mental health, including access to EAPs and counselling is given precedence over other types of support, and are offered by 57% of employers as part of preventative care.

Preventative support for physical health, such as helping staff increase physical activity and improve diet is offered by 56% of employers. Support for social health, such as organising social events, or supporting voluntary work is offered by 53% of employers, and support for financial health, such as financial planning and debt consolidation is offered by just under half (49%) of employers.

GRiD’s research, which was undertaken by Opinium from 9-16 January 2024 among 500 HR decision-makers at UK businesses, found that employers believe preventative support for mental health to be most helpful to staff (50%), closely followed by support for physical health (49%), support for social health (46%) and financial health at 42%.

Moxham, concluded: “Our research shows that preventative care can be overlooked by employers and therefore undersold to staff, but make no mistake, these seemingly straightforward measures can make a dramatic difference in absence rates and in staff performing to their best ability.”

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