Britain’s Healthiest Workplace is an annual study funded and developed by VitalityHealth and delivered in partnership with the University of Cambridge, RAND Europe and Mercer, with the Financial Times as our media partner. In its sixth year, it looked at a number of lifestyle, mental wellbeing, clinical risk and productivity factors among 26 432 employees, together with a broad view of leadership and cultural dimensions and organisational policies, practices and facilities that could directly impact on employee health, across 129 companies.

The results show that the average UK employee loses 35.6 days of productive time each year, up from 27.5 days in 2017, including a rise in presenteeism. 34% of employees indicate they have felt unwell because of work-related stress, which is more common among employees who earn lower incomes. Employees with increased financial concerns were also shown to be losing more than twice as much productivity, and were much more likely to smoke, be obese, suffer from hypertension or cholesterol, or report sleeping issues than the average respondent.

The findings demonstrate that employee health is an issue which cannot be ignored, especially as health-related lost productivity is costing the UK economy an estimated £81 billion per year. This figure would reduce significantly with adequate investment in health and wellbeing, and importantly would support greater engagement with employees.

In linking modifiable health risks and short-term productivity, Britain’s Healthiest Workplace is helping develop a common understanding of what employee health and wellbeing means, and establishing a common set of standards that can be applied in all industries.