Workplace health and wellbeing policies explained

How are your employees doing?

And we don’t mean performance metrics in a spreadsheet somewhere — how are they feeling?

The past few years have been difficult for many people financially, emotionally and physically. It’s therefore more important than ever for employers to understand employee wellbeing and actively support it. As well as being vital to a workforce’s wellbeing, there are also business benefits.

Why prioritise workplace wellbeing?

Almost half (47%) of business don’t have a standalone wellbeing strategy.  Yet a report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development reveals that mental health is the UK’s fourth-most common cause of short-term sickness absence and the biggest cause of long-term sickness absence. In England, there were 146,659 referrals to NHS talking therapies in May 2024, with 107,447 people waiting for an assessment.

Taking care of employees’ health, happiness and wellbeing can have a major return on investment in areas such as:

• Higher productivity¹
• Reduced absenteeism
• Improved retention, meaning less staff turnover and reduced hiring costs
• Benefits to your company’s reputation as a good place to work.

What is a workplace mental health and wellbeing strategy?

A workplace mental health and wellbeing strategy is a plan, pathway or roadmap for how you as a business manage employees’ mental health and wellbeing.

Above all, it doesn’t need to be complicated or expensive. However, it’s key to bringing to life and embedding a culture of workplace wellbeing so every employee can thrive.

Implementing a workplace mental health and wellbeing strategy

Mental health is a complex topic; however, a wellbeing strategy doesn’t have to be. For example, simple steps employers can take include:

1. Starting a wellbeing committee: Get people from across the business involved to promote wellbeing initiatives that work for everyone.
2. Creating a mental health policy if you don’t already have one: Unum can support this with a Workplace Health and Wellbeing Review.
3. Regularly reviewing your policy: It’s not enough to create the policy and leave it be. It must involve regular, two-way communications between employer and employees about how it should evolve
4. Measuring and managing your risk areas: Examine your current wellbeing measures and make improvements as well as promote what’s available and measure utilisation and outcomes
5. Checking existing providers: See if you already get access to support for your employees. For instance, our Unum Group Risk customers can access Help@hand,² the health and wellbeing app from Unum
6. Line manager competencies: Train line managers and upskill them to support staff.

None of these require major strategic business change but, as above, ensuring employee wellbeing can make a real difference to your staff.

What is Unum’s Workplace Health and Wellbeing Review?

Perfect for those unsure where to start or wanting to review their existing approach, our Workplace Health and Wellbeing Review examines your current workplace wellbeing strategy, then discusses how you could make changes to improve employee wellbeing.

Our wellbeing specialists work with you to make these improvements over 12 months, offering advice, training and support at every step.

At initial review, we determine what already exists and areas that aren’t being met, based on:

• Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD) guidance on effective people management
• The Mental Health at Work Commitment
• The 2017 Stevenson/Farmer Thriving at work report.

We’ve used these to create six standards to promote optimal employee health and wellbeing:

1. Having a mental health and wellbeing policy/plan
2. Ensuring easy access to resources to support health and wellbeing
3. Making wellbeing part of the journey from recruitment through to employment
4. Providing good working conditions and training/development opportunities
5. Effective line manager practises
6. Gathering and using data to determine and manage health and wellbeing risk.

How have we helped?

A company that brings in a Unum Workplace Health and Wellbeing Review can see numerous benefits, not least improving the working environment that their people need in order to thrive.

Without a wellbeing policy, there’s a risk of high levels of presenteeism and absenteeism. Clear wellbeing parameters can support with health, happiness and productivity in the workplace and so are massively important for the modern working world. If you’re a Unum GIP customer, book yours using the form below.

Two employers with a sizable number of employees recently underwent a Unum Workplace Health and Wellbeing Review. Here’s what they had to say.

“I’d recommend that employers with services through Unum engage with the Rehabilitation team as much as possible — they are so knowledgeable in the topics they discuss and use a delivery style that’s informative, friendly and well-rounded Overall, Unum provides great support for both employers and employees.” — BBI Solutions

“Partnering with Unum to provide our employees with GIP has made a big difference to the way we approach absence management and employee wellbeing. We’ve really benefited from being one of Unum’s Premier accounts, which gives access to our Account Manager Scott. Alongside our dedicated Vocational Rehabilitation Consultant, Claims Assessor and Rehabilitation Wellbeing Consultant, he’s been instrumental in helping us use every added-value service Unum has.” — DataFi

Workplace Health and Wellbeing Reviews: the statistics

For instance, at initial review, we found 63% of companies met standard four — having good working conditions, benefits and a positive work/life balance. Whilst this is a good score, companies that worked with us throughout the year were able to increase this to 88% at final review.

At Unum, we’re proud that, for companies that completed a Workplace Health and Wellbeing Review and worked with us throughout the year to implement our suggestions:

• The proportion with a mental health and wellbeing strategy at initial review was just 8% at initial review and 64% at final review
• The percentage that met the CIPD’s standards for effective people management was just 5% at initial review and 44% at final review
• The proportion of businesses meeting all six standards we review them against was only 2.5% at initial review and 40% at final review.

Our Group Income Protection (GIP) policies come with our Mental Health Pathway built in. This offers support for both employers and employees dealing with mental health concerns in the workplace with a single access point for any queries.

Since introducing the Mental Health Pathway in 2018, we’ve had more than 1,000 referrals to our Rehabilitation and Wellbeing Team for help, support and signposting. Meanwhile, in 2023 our Vocational Rehabilitation Team has supported 97% of people referred to us with mental health concerns to either return to work or reach an otherwise agreed outcome.

Support from Unum

Part of your workplace wellbeing strategy might include promoting resources available to employees. Depending on the Group Risk product you hold, there are various benefits accessible to employees:

• Help@hand offers those covered by Unum Group Risk policies access to services such as unlimited mental healthcare support⁴ from qualified clinicians
• Wellness Action Plans — for those with long-term conditions (not just mental health concerns), these show how both employer and employee can manage the employee’s condition
• Wellbeing Checks — Unum’s GIP lets employers and employees make a referral for an employee Wellbeing Check, a personalised check-in with an in-house Unum wellbeing expert
• Line manager training and employee wellbeing workshops — CPD-accredited courses for line managers to help them support employee wellbeing on topics including stress management and mental health. Plus, employee sessions on resilience, thriving through change and lifestyle management. Between 2018 and 2023, we’ve had almost 80,000 workshop attendees.
• Wellbeing Calendar — packed with resources such as podcasts, articles, webinars and awareness dates.
• Mental Health Pathway — a single access point for specialist support for employees or employers dealing with workplace mental health concerns. Queries increase by 72% between 2022 and 2023. To access the Pathway, complete the form below.