Staying Healthy: Workers Want Full Support from Employers

Workers in Canada and the U.S. do not feel their employers are fully supportive in helping them stay healthy despite many companies offering workplace health services and financial incentives for the same. Two new studies found that employees in both countries want more help from their employers in getting and staying healthy.

A majority of workers (60 percent) think their company is only moderately-to-not-supportive when it comes to their efforts to be healthy, according to a report from Aon Hewitt, a human resource consulting and outsourcing firm.

"Employers may be missing the mark when it comes to health improvement programs being offered to workers," Live science quoted Cathy Tripp, managing principal of health and benefits at Aon Hewitt and the study's project leader, as saying.

Half of participants (50 percent) in the Aon Hewitt survey said they want a personalized plan that recommends specific actions they can take to improve their health.

Workers are also looking for convenient, one-stop access to information, such as a company health website offering personalized tips.

Workers would also like help from their employers in estimating health care and health insurance costs with the use of a cost-estimating calculator or other tools or advice that can be customized to each worker's situation.

One of the health problem areas in which employers need to be better focused is mental health, a new survey by global professional services company Towers Watson found.

It found that despite growing awareness, mental health conditions continue to be the most common reason for both short-term and long-term disability claims in Canada.

Most organizations participating in the Towers Watson survey report that employee stress is a major and growing business issue, and many are planning to adapt their organizational health strategies for the next two years to include a focus on mental, as well as physical, health.

Workers participating in the survey cited excessive workloads, lack of work/life balance, unclear or conflicting job expectations and inadequate staffing as the top sources of workplace stress.

Source-ANI