Wellness

This is a big subject and covers services from gym provision to online health questionnaires. It necessarily follows that costs will vary considerably.

Peter Marno suggests that the first priority is for employers to make clear what is an individual's responsibility for maintaining fitness to work and what ‘tools' will be provided to help them. Such tools could be:

• Private Medical Insurance
• Sick pay and/or Permanent Health Insurance
• Employee Assistance Programmes
• Gym membership
• Screening programmes - both physical and online
• Health education programmes
• Healthy eating in workplace dining rooms
• Sports programmes.

Prevention

It is unfortunate that those who might benefit from a healthy lifestyle rarely take up the voluntary services provided while the healthy, of course, do.

One of the key principle objectives in Dame Carol Black's report Working For a Healthier Tomorrow is the "prevention of illness and the promotion of health and wellbeing". Employers are faced with two population hurdles to cross - ageing and obesity. Both are predicted to be a drain on the health services of the Nation, and therefore by definition, will be a drain on employers unless managed effectively.