The extensive approach to employee health has always been high on HR Directors’ agenda. Attractive non-pay benefits in this respect contribute to increased engagement, retention and, above all, safety of employees. These tasks are strongly linked to the business objectives of management boards, ensuring business continuity and productivity.
In order to better understand business needs and how they are related to looking after employee health, on behalf of Medicover* ICAN Research has carried out interviews with HR Directors in several companies from various sectors. What are the conclusions of the “Healthy Company” study? How can they be changed by the coronavirus pandemic? Based on our studies and knowledge, we will now try to present how these needs have changed.
In the reality defined by the pandemic, the needs of HR departments have taken new directions. Here are the most important current challenges of HR teams:
• A strong need to look after employee health in order to rebuild their engagement and productivity. This task is all the more difficult because it is necessary to adapt to completely new working and living conditions. Additionally, employees are overcome with working from home, social distancing and fear for the future;
• The need to increase employees’ immunity and psychological resilience, and build a safe and healthy working environment and processes in the organisation;
• Many companies are confronted with the difficult question: how to effectively carry out the transformation and adapt the organisation and its structure, the necessary competences, the leadership model, collective productivity and labour costs to the new circumstances?
• Due to the economic situation, it is necessary to reduce personnel costs, including those borne due to the level of employment, salary levels and scope of non-pay benefits.
EMPLOYEE HEALTH STRATEGIES IN 2019–2020
Looking after employees, their health and safety at work has always been part of the corporate strategy, particularly in large global companies. Today, this approach is becoming particularly valuable. For smaller organisations, it has been crucial to provide basic non-pay benefits. Currently, these benefits are strongly linked to the companies’ financial situation.
The strategy of looking after employee health differs from sector to sector. In non-production companies, employees are often included in extensive programmes that ensure comprehensive care for the well-being of employees. In more advanced versions, these programmes have defined such areas as physical, emotional and life balance. Now, this approach is complemented by the creation of a safe workplace that minimises the risk of diseases, and by providing support in the area of mental health: psychological helplines or increased specialist consultations.
In production companies, the keyword related to looking after employees has always been “safety.” The OHS Department working with HR is responsible for this issue. Here, many initiatives involve both safety and health.
Currently, it is necessary to adapt the organisation to the required sanitary regime and the guidelines of the Ministry of Health and of the Chief Sanitary Inspectorate.
The strategy of looking after employee health used to be based on planned basic activities and development of ad-hoc initiatives. First, companies focused on choosing the products they wanted to offer their employees (medical care, sports package), and on organising or enabling participation in regular events and initiatives. Other activities (prevention programmes, health, volunteering and others) were developed based on ideas and needs. Today, medical care and access to physical activity remain crucial. However, safe and remote forms of these services are becoming increasingly important. Prevention programmes that can be adapted to the current situation and provided as webinars, eBooks or telemedical consultation are also not without significance.
HR CHALLENGES IN ORGANISING PRO-HEALTH-ACTIVITIES IN 2019–2020
The “Healthy Company” study shows that the following are among the biggest challenges related to looking after employee health:
• Matching the offer to the needs within your budget constraints,
• Providing employees with information, particularly in dispersed structures,
• Motivating employees to participate in the programmes,
• Providing resources to organise large events,
• Providing access to the best trainers or institutions running the programmes,
• In smaller organisations, facing budget constraints that can be obstacles to development,
• Changing everyday habits, because not only crisis-related actions are important.
These challenges are still relevant, or even more pronounced in connection with the coronavirus pandemic. This is mainly due the often limited budget, the home-office model and the organisation of a safe return to work.
In the interviews, HR Directors have most frequently referred to medical care as the most important area in building a healthy company. Next, representatives of companies where the health offer is more extensive have listed prevention programmes, physical activity and mental health.
• Medical care is still treated as a basic benefit that every company must provide to its employees. The main HR motivation behind providing medical care is to match it to the market standard and to look after employees. Currently, it is also important in terms of increasing immunity, and providing remote, quick and safe access to medical care.
• Activities in the field of mental health in the surveyed companies focus on providing support to employees at work and in private life. Mental health has a large impact on engagement and motivation at work. The level of stress at work increases due to fear of losing the job, problems with sleeping, addiction, home-office system, feeling of isolation and uncertainty, interpersonal conflicts, lost motivation, or burnout. These are issues that affect many employees and their family, also having a negative impact on the level of their engagement, energy and productivity.
• The aim of prevention is to build awareness and strengthen habits for leading a healthy lifestyle, as well as avoiding the development of diseases. Changing habits helps ensure a healthy way of living and builds immunity, particularly in the current health situation. It involves many aspects – from mental hygiene, through regular physical activity, proper nutrition, sleep and social relations, to valuable leisure activities. During the epidemic, it is particularly important that companies take actions to build awareness, help strengthen immunity to diseases, and increase safety in the workplace. This includes providing diagnostic tests to employees, hygiene-related education, and responsibility for own and other people’s health. Working from home had been a big part of work-life balance even before the pandemic. Currently, its efficiency, as well as healthy habits are fundamental to ensuring the continuity of operation of many companies and occupational groups.
• Physical activity and healthy leisure activities are still very strong drives. Companies would like to support employees in their hobbies, as this is how they retain the best talents and build the employer’s positive image. For participants of the “Healthy Company” survey, sport is important principally in building the organisational culture: it enables teamwork, cooperation and pursuit of goals, and brings out the fighting spirit. Today, sports and physical activity are particularly important because they increase immunity and psychological resilience. After the temporary closure of fitness clubs and swimming pools, the popularity of home online training (both live ones as well as recordings), webinars with experts, training tips and dietician advice on healthy eating has increased dramatically.
• The healthcare offer is personalised, i.e. there is a shift from standard service packages to cafeteria systems where employees can freely select benefits. Currently, popular offers include access to streaming platforms, books, board games, and home and outdoor sports equipment. It is increasingly common to tailor healthcare benefits to the specific needs of different occupational groups (e.g. production employees, office employees, remote employees, direct customer service employees, mobile employees, or management employees). This results from the diversity of expectations and health risks related to different positions.
Conclusions of the study have prompted Medicover to implement a new approach in healthcare for companies. As part of our new “Healthy Company” model, we build solutions for organisations focusing on meeting the three main HR needs:
1. How to build engagement, resilience, mental and physical fitness and energy of employees?
2. How to create safe working conditions, including developing a new workplace and work process safety standards and requirements?
3. How to provide employees with benefits despite the need to reduce personnel costs related to e.g. employment or salaries?
All this is done in reference to different occupational groups, including production employees, office employees, mobile employees, remote employees, management employees, or sales and customer service employees.
Our and our customers’ approach to health strategy is consistent with the WHO definition of health:
“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
Therefore, based on our competence centres, and in cooperation with our partners, we are developing dynamically and providing innovative solutions, both standard ones, as well as tailor-made, involving all areas of employee health. We focus on being an HR partner in building employee safety, health and engagement.
1. Medical care – thanks to our flexibility, substantial knowledge and many years of experience, we can offer budget-fitting modern solutions that will help keep employees healthy, and make them feel that the company is looking after them, which will translate into improved productivity, even if they are working remotely.
2. Mental health – we offer solutions for providing psychological services that do not require leaving home or organising group meetings for employees. Employers can choose from an offer of webinars, phone consultations with specialists and emergency interventions, which will work best in unique situations where employees have recently been exposed to high levels of stress, such as restructuring or changing jobs.
3. Prevention and safety at work – we will match solutions to the current epidemiological situation, and then organise online prevention activities for employees, without forcing them to leave home.
4. Physical activity – thanks to openness in creating modern solutions, it was possible to create a platform that enables employees to train online. The platform offers real-time exercises, enabling participants to integrate and feel as if they were attending classes in a fitness club.
5. Healthy eating – we offer educational solutions. Lectures and meetings with employees move to a virtual space. We provide phone consultations with a dietician, and deliver traditional and vegetarian menus that employees can manage online.
6. Healthy leisure activities – we provide the opportunity to choose attractive non-pay benefits available in one easy-to-use Medicover Benefits platform where you can find a variety of shopping vouchers for books, toys, to online shops, e.g. Allegro, discounts for various children playrooms, discounts for adults, e.g. salt caves, dance studios, or the possibility of supporting charitable activities.
Authors:
Małgorzata Nowak, DipM., Head of the Offer Development Department at Medicover
Piotr Dreszer, PhD in Physiotherapy, Health Coach, Marketing Director at Medicover