It’s National Eye Health Week next month from 20 to 26 September, a reminder of the importance of looking after our bodies.

You no doubt know that feeling of not being at your best; it can be harder to focus and be productive, which can have a knock-on effect on how you feel mentally.

As a business owner, you’re in a great position to help your employees with their health.

Whether you offer a healthcare plan, support initiatives that promote good health, or simply have a couple of extra wellness days a year, you can make a big difference to your employees’ physical and mental wellbeing.

As well as the benefits you can offer them, caring for your employees’ health can be good for your business, too.

Here are five great reasons to support your employees’ good health in your business.

1. A great incentive to attract and retain talent

Firstly, with health and wellbeing becoming a higher priority for many workers, providing some form of support for your workers’ health is a great way to attract and retain the best talent.

Your employees’ can be more confident that you’re actively invested in helping them look after themselves, encouraging them to continue working for you.

Similarly, with so much emphasis put on wellbeing, health benefits may start to become standard for individuals looking to join companies.

According to HR Magazine, 65% of workers hope that their employers recognise that healthy, happy employees are key to a business’s success.

If you want to keep your best workers while expanding your talent pool even further, having health benefits is vital.

2. Employees will need to take fewer sick days in total

By contributing to your employees’ health, you can help to reduce the number of sick days your staff need to take.

Whether it’s for physical illness or stress-related issues, sick staff can cost the UK economy upwards of £77 billion a year.

This could have a tangible impact on your business. It may mean work doesn’t get done, or clients miss out on important projects because their main point of contact is too unwell to work.

Having to cover other people’s work could also increase the workload for other employees, adding to their stress.

By offering wellbeing benefits in some form, all your employees can benefit, whether directly or indirectly.

3. Improved mental health and morale

Mental health has become increasingly important in the workplace, particularly during the periods of social isolation brought on by Covid.

The pandemic has exacerbated mental health issues greatly. A study of over 2,000 employees by health provider Champion found that 58% of respondents experienced stress at work in 2020, with 69% reporting moderate to high stress levels in general.

This translated into 63% feeling mild symptoms of anxiety, with a further 58% reporting mild symptoms of depression. Even more worrying, 26% said their depression was “moderate to severe”.

Looking after mental health is just as important as looking after physical health. It can be responsible for your employees needing even more sick days, and could also have an impact on their ability to perform their job.

By providing some form of support for their mental health, you can at least mitigate some of the stress that your employees might experience.

It can even be a boost of confidence just to know that there’s a safety net available for when things get tough.

4. Increased business productivity

As a result of the boost to morale and the fall in the number of sick days that your employees need to take, you’ll likely find that your employees are able to be more productive.

According to insurance provider Vitality’s Healthiest Workplace Survey, employees lost 14.6% of their working hours from “presenteeism”. This is where employees are present at work, but too unwell or tired to actually perform their job function to the required standard.

A loss of 14.6% means each employee loses 38 productive days per year, on average. That means every single individual in your business could be losing up to a month’s time to work, simply from poor health or stress.

By providing for their physical and mental health, you can reduce the impact of presenteeism, helping your employees to be more productive at work.

5. Promote a good relationship between you and your staff

Ultimately, providing some form of health benefits shows your staff that you value their wellbeing. There’s no better way to create a strong relationship between you and those in your business.

As well as being healthy enough to work productively, staff who feel that their employer is watching out for them will be more willing to work for you, rather than themselves.

You can help foster a culture of going the extra mile for one another, which, in turn, will translate in them going the extra mile for your business, too.

Get in touch

If you’d like to find the best ways to provide wellbeing benefits to your employees in your business, please speak to us at Holborn Financial.

We offer full financial planning services for business owners to help them make the most of their businesses.

To find out more, email info@holbornfinancial.com or call 020 8946 8186 to speak to us.