Why workplace wellbeing will change radically by 2020

Just as we’ve seen a funding shift in pensions from government to employer, this will also start to happen with employee health and wellbeing. The use of national insurance to fund healthcare in the UK seems secure for now, but in the future employers could be incentivised to be more proactive on wellbeing and prevention for their staff.I wouldn't be surprised if most HR and employee benefits professionals missed the publication of a rather important document from the NHS in October 2014. The Five year forward report sets out where the NHS plans to be by 2020.And employers get a small, but important mention.This paragraph jumped out at me: “The NHS will therefore now back hard-hitting national action on obesity, smoking, alcohol and other major health risks. We will help develop and support new workplace incentives to promote employee health and cut sickness-related unemployment.”Prevention is the name of the game. Several reports and reviews in recent years have fed into this report. Topping the list is the World Health Organisation’s Implementing a health 2020 vision: governance for health in 2020. It spells out the vital need for all government’s to tackle the health of their populations, and the implications if they do not.To have any hope of mitigating the risk, governments including the UK’s need to call on all communities, including employers.So if this is all so important, what is it that the NHS wants employers to do?Skimming through Five year forward, it appears employers only get a mention on page 11, including the reference to Fit for Work which was implemented in 2015 on the back of the Dame Carol Black and David Frost CBE review, Health at Work: an independent review of sickness absence.So you have to delve and extrapolate in order to work out how employers could be affected.For example, within five years the NHS wants patients to be able to consult with GPs via video.This last objective is brilliant. Imagine how employers could reduce absence rates if staff didn’t have to take time off work to visit their doctor? But wait? How many employers are set up to allow staff to have private video chats with their GP?We are a long way from having all the questions, never mind the answers. But by 2020 workplace wellbeing could look very different.