How to support employees who are not covered by employer-provided healthcare
Employers will need to consider how they support their employees to remain in the workplace, often with declining health. Positive steps, taken early, will help reduce the level of absenteeism and boost productivity, but where do you start?
Provide access to a hospital plan
Although many businesses are not in a position to offer employer-provided healthcare to their workers, hospital plans can be an affordable alternative. With a hospital plan, employees can claim a cash payment for any overnight hospital stays and outpatient treatment, helping to cover those extra personal costs that could arise.
By choosing a provider that covers pre-existing conditions, all staff can benefit from this cover for a small fee that comes out of their payslip, including those with chronic health conditions.
Enable them to look after their health on their own terms
Businesses can support employees with chronic health conditions by providing access to health and wellbeing benefits to enable them to look after their health on their own terms.
Employers can help all employees navigate personal problems by providing them with resources and support when they need it. This could include confidential short-term counselling services, or support on financial, legal and health issues.
Alongside this, On Demand GP services allow employees to contact an online doctor at their convenience, providing a practical solution to improving the physical health of your workers. With average waiting times to see a GP in the UK growing, it can generally be two weeks before employees can secure an appointment, which can affect not only their physical health but also create an additional source of stress. On Demand GP services allow employees with chronic health conditions to take better control.
Support them through flexible working
Flexible working can come in many guises. Whilst many business models, and job roles, don’t allow for working from home, other options are available which may work for your business. Job roles that operate in shift patterns or allow a time-made-up policy, for example, could be flexible to accommodate doctor’s appointments. Similarly, certain chronic illnesses may mean that workers have more or less energy at certain times of the day; with this in mind, accommodating a change in working hours may be helpful.
Help employees stay connected
Managing a chronic illness can unfortunately mean employees have to take extensive periods of time out of the office. It is vital that all workers can retain contact with the business and implementing an employee engagement platform can enable this. A central hub, that contains all the documentation an employee might need, that can be accessed remotely via a mobile phone, means that employees can get the information they need, when they need it. This might be finding the details of the employee assistance programme helpline, accessing details of their hospital cash plan, or even downloading their latest payslip.
By creating a business culture that focusses on employees as a whole person, and which supports employees with chronic health conditions, employers can minimise loss of skills, improve productivity and help employees maintain a better quality of life, both inside and outside of work.
This article is provided by Personal Group.
In partnership with Personal Group
Personal Group provides the latest employee benefits and wellbeing products.
