5 reasons to invest in onsite health care for your employees
Companies must take a more active role in supporting the overall health of their workforce.
Between physical ailments due to COVID and the mental and emotional strain caused by stress, worry and isolation, the last two years have taken a tremendous toll on the workforce and the organizations that employ them.
From late December 2021 to early January 2022 alone, some nine million people missed work due to the surge in Omicron cases, and millions more have suffered significant mental health crises, adding an immeasurably greater number of lost days and lost productivity.
Related: Infographic: Pandemic’s impact on employee mental health, productivity
At the same time, employers are facing an unprecedented shortage of workers and a huge shift in attitudes toward work. Across the board, people are demanding better treatment and more flexibility from employers and rejecting the workaholic mentality that has dominated our culture for decades, driving the Great Resignation. Meanwhile, Baby Boomers have taken the opportunity to retire in droves, leaving employers scrambling to attract Millennials and Gen Zers, who bring a much different set of demands and expectations.
All of this has created a perfect storm with a severe impact on productivity, innovation and profitability. By some estimates, the reduction in global work hours this year is expected to be the equivalent of 52 million full-time jobs lost—a huge hit for organizations of all sizes.
To recover and thrive going forward, companies must take a more active role in supporting the overall health of their workforce. While offering benefits—both physical and mental health coverage—is a start, those have become table stakes. Employers must do more. As Larry Fink of BlackRock stated in his annual letter to CEOs, companies that fail to adapt to this new reality do so at their own peril. Health is becoming a major function of the business, and that means we must invest in more innovative ways to maintain a healthy workplace.
Providing onsite health care services is one of the best ways to deliver complete health care and wellbeing to support employees’ demand. And thanks to more flexible, innovative offerings in the health care space, it’s becoming much more feasible through outsourced services that help companies deliver a differentiated employee experience focusing on employee wellbeing. Here are five ways investing in onsite health care services can give your company a competitive advantage.
1. Gain a better understanding of employees’ needs and how to address them.
Not only did the pandemic create a huge backlog of delayed care, employees are also dealing with a wide range of new health concerns. From long COVID, stress-related ailments and substance use disorders to repetitive stress injuries from poor work-from-home ergonomics, your employees’ health needs have likely changed substantially, and likely not for the better.
By providing onsite access to care, companies can learn more about their employees’ new and ongoing needs (anonymously, of course), whereas this insight would otherwise be scattered across a wide range of medical providers. Based on this knowledge, companies can offer more focused solutions to help address key issues, whether it’s better ergonomics, stress management solutions, healthy diet or fitness support or mental health care.
2. Reduce lost time from appointments.
Going to the doctor for a simple check-up or to the lab for routine blood work can be time-consuming, especially now that providers are overwhelmed and understaffed. What amounts to a 15-minute well visit or 10-minute blood draw can take an hour or more including wait time, not to mention the travel time to and from work.
Providing basic care services on site eliminates this wasted time, allowing employees to get access to the care they need immediately, or at least at their convenience. This is tangible benefit for the worker and provides greater overall productivity for employer’s operations. Lost time and lost productivity are no longer spent on routine medical visits.
3. Eliminate the hassle of appointments for employees.
Even with great health benefits, employees still have to take time to make health care appointments, and typically have to wait days or weeks to see a provider. In the case of mental health, getting in to see a therapist or counselor can take months, meanwhile, employees are struggling to carry on under the weight of their physical or mental burdens.
With onsite health care services, employees don’t have to compete with outside patients for appointment times, allowing them to get faster access to care. Health services provided by their employer are now structured around the employee’s needs. This enables them to get treatment and start on the road to recovery much quicker, which benefits their overall health and the company’s bottom line while creating a much happier workforce.
4. Gather data to better quantify risk.
Insurance providers determine premium costs based on the aggregated risk of the insured population, considering factors like the total population health, geography and more. Some programs like fitness memberships and health management incentives can help lower insurance costs by reducing chronic illness, but these rates are still based on actuarial calculations involving larger populations.
By bringing health care services onsite, companies can gather (anonymous) accurate health data on their employees to better quantify their specific risks, separate from the general population. This can help to lower the cost of insurance premiums for both the company and employee contributions.
5. Attract and retain talent.
As employees demand more benefits and a better experience from an employer, it’s more important than ever for companies to offer differentiated perks. Providing onsite health care services demonstrates a strong investment in employee health and a commitment to providing an excellent overall employee experience. It sends the signal that you’re committed to supporting employees in every way possible, which makes for a more attractive workplace for candidates and cultivates employee loyalty.
In every organization, talent is the most expensive line item on the books, and most organizations are scrupulous about managing HR costs when it comes to compensation and benefits. But today’s employees are looking beyond salary and benefits for an excellent employee experience that, in many cases, is determined more so by how well the company invests in the overall happiness, satisfaction and wellbeing of its people than what it pays.
If you’re not actively managing employee health, you’re leaving too much to chance, which could impact the business’ ability to compete and thrive. Take care of your employees, and they’ll take care of your business.
Andrew Morton is CEO at Bloom Health Partners.
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