Start with analytics, says Stuart Leatherby from Generali Global Health
Stuart Leatherby – Commercial Director at Generali Global Health – talks about the issues employers should think about when supporting their employees moving overseas particularly in relation to their health.
- It is all very well for a paternalistic employer to put a healthcare strategy in place, but first they need to understand what their employees – and bottom line – will benefit from.
It’s not all about the hard buck. It’s the benefits that come from a good healthcare strategy, rather than paying lip service to it. And it’s not just paternalistic, it’s good management to seek employee health wellbeing and engagement. The aim is to retain staff and make sure you are providing employees with a healthy working environment and a work life balance in which they can flourish. There are important benefits for both the employee and the company with the right kind of healthcare strategy. It can be a win-win situation.
- How do employers get to grips with the main health and wellbeing issues facing their workforce, and pick the right products to meet their needs?
Start with the analytics. Look at any healthcare data relating to employees, normally that will be anonymised. Employers can achieve that by looking at health insurance plans and at utilisation of types of services. Employers can look at absence management systems. Also, there is much empirical evidence around absenteeism and presentism to understand what are the types of issues facing employees in any given location. If employees are in Shanghai in China for instance, or another big city, respiratory illness might be an issue. In others, it might be digestive diseases or transmitted diseases like malaria. In the UK, the emphasis is much more on muscular-skeletal conditions. Employers need to use the healthcare analytics they can get from their own business and supplement that with imperial evidence from external sources, and then develop a wellness strategy around this.
- What healthcare and wellbeing products are on the market for those companies that want to look after their staff, but don’t have a huge budget?
There are a number of informational wellness tools available. They usually include smoking cessation programmes, or information about dealing with stress or diabetes. As these tools are informational, they tend not to provide any interactive features. There are many applications that can be plugged into a company’s intranet or website and modest cost.
Then there are other more sophisticated services like health risk assessment tools. These allow employees to get a health snapshot of themselves, and understand their level of risk for developing particular conditions. Then there applications that are more interactive, but still relatively low cost, include the likes of Virgin Pulse. These work with wearables and employers can create activity based initiatives that can be designed around the needs of a group and offer engaging programmes for their employees.
- How can employees be easily engaged with staying healthy?
People respond best and get more engaged when rewards are available, ie with applications that offer points for undertaking activity. Those points can be used to buy items or experiences, which is an effective effort and reward mechanism. This type of engagement is easier to achieve with employees, if they see that there are benefits specifically available for them.
- What factors, other than physical health, impact on an employee’s overall wellbeing – and how can the employer help in looking after these issues as well?
Stress and depression are good examples. This particularly applies to expats as they can experience loneliness and isolation. But there are a number of things that can be used by employers to help with these types of conditions. International Employee Assistant Programmes (EAP), for instance, helps to deal with some of issues associated with settling in different environments.
Logistical problems can also be an issue. The ease of accessing medical facilities, for example, can worry people who have moved to an unfamiliar environment. So, virtual doctor services can help to deal with this type of issue, particularly when the individual is in a remote location.
Quality of care can be enhanced with benefits such second medical opinion services. This type of facility means that international workers can be sure of the best advice, even if they are in a location doesn’t that doesn’t have high standards of healthcare.