Supporting employees with long-term health conditions
Employers play a crucial role in supporting employees with long-term health conditions such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and mental health conditions.
As employers, we need to think about the potential effects on the rest of the workforce and productivity of the company.
By implementing proactive health management and communication strategies, organisations can improve employee well-being, while reducing the costs associated with ill-health.
Impact of long-term health conditions
Long-term health conditions are prevalent worldwide, affecting millions of individuals. Heart disease remains a leading cause of death globally, while cancer is one of the most common chronic illnesses.
Non-communicable diseases, including heart disease and cancer, account for more than 70% of all deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
WTW’s recent Global Benefit Attitude Survey (GBAS) highlights that 15% of employees in the UK are currently living with at least one long-term condition, a number that is set to increase significantly in the coming years.
This can be a considerable burden for the individual, the team and the employer, in terms of ongoing health benefit costs.
Additionally, WTW data shows that employees with long-term health conditions have levels of absence and presenteeism that are almost 70% higher than healthy employees who are not managing long-term health conditions.
They are also more likely to be disengaged at work and struggling with burnout.
Then, there is the less obvious effect on colleagues, who are impacted by absenteeism and presenteeism.
And finally, there is an often-unnoticed effect on employees who are supporting parents and older relatives, as well as younger relatives and friends, through long-term health conditions.
This can have a significant impact on their ability to be present and productive at work.
As a result, there are also impacts on business costs due to healthcare premiums and lost productivity.
The role of lifestyle and social determinants of health
Evidence shows that lifestyle and behaviour factors can have an impact on cancer risk and long-term health conditions, alongside environmental factors such as air quality and pollution.
Diet, sleep quality, physical activity levels, smoking cessation and alcohol consumption can also be critical.
WTW’s GBAS research highlights that UK employees with long-term conditions are two times less likely to sleep well, engage in physical activity to improve their health and are twice as likely to smoke.
Additionally, social determinants of health such as socioeconomic status, education around illnesses, and access to healthcare resources play a vital role in an individual's overall wellbeing.
Employers need to ensure the benefit programmes they provide are equitable and adequately address employee health risks for their organisation.
Importance of personalised communication
Effective communication is essential in driving behaviour change among employees, particularly when it comes to having the right information to prevent illnesses.
Personalized communication strategies that consider individual employee needs and preferences can lead to better engagement in health and wellbeing programs.
The GBAS highlight that where employees understand the health benefits provided by their employer and the how they relate to their specific circumstances, they are five times more likely to take action to improve their health and wellbeing.
Using data-driven insights to tailor messages should then become a foundational part of any benefits communication strategy.
Leveraging AI and health technology
AI and emerging health technologies offer innovative solutions for managing employee health proactively.
But while generative AI and machine learning adoption has accelerated at pace, traditional employee benefit providers have struggled to keep up.
The cost-effectiveness of integrating AI into workplace health initiatives could be significant.
A study by McKinsey suggested that widespread adoption of AI could yield savings of 5% to 10% in healthcare spending annually. This reduction comes from improved operational efficiencies and enhanced patient outcomes through personalised care.
However, we currently see most adoption of health technology to support access to primary care, via a health or risk benefit programme, and data indicates that this is having a negative impact on healthcare programme costs for several reasons.
Delayed access to NHS primary care services is causing high demand, and utilisation of digital GP services and as many conditions need further, in-person assessment to support diagnosis, higher levels of symptoms and signs claims are showing up in healthcare programme spend.
For AI and health technology to be most effective, it needs to be effectively leveraged to identify risks and triage employees to the right solution for them.
Combining aggregated data insights from wearable devices with predictive health insights from AI algorithms can help to identify those at risk of developing long-term health conditions and deliver targeted and timely interventions.
Steps to mitigate and manage health risk
Many organisations struggle to manage the volume of vendors they have to coordinate to deliver an effective programme.
In order to effectively support employees with health and wellbeing issues, employers need to understand the specific health risks of their employee population and address them in a targeted and tactical way.
Ensuring decisions are driven by data means that employers can effectively target interventions and communications to make the biggest impact to health risks within their organisation.
Harnessing the power of machine learning and predictive health analytics elevates this approach, enabling organisations to ensure programmes are future ready and to implement preventative and proactive engagement strategies to mitigate future risk.
Undertaking a vendor and benefit gap analysis exercise, including a thorough review of vendor health management pathways, provides a strong foundation to build from.
Many organisations have both duplication of services alongside gaps in provisions or in the user journey, meaning benefit budgets are not working as hard as they could do.
Health technology and AI-driven digital health solutions offer employers an opportunity to deliver targeted, scalable, support and interventions at a competitive price point.
When combined with technology platforms that utilise machine learning and AI to support triage and engagement, employers can deliver personalized and engaging health and wellbeing programmes.
In partnership with WTW
WTW is a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company.
