According to figures released by the Scottish government, ill-health costs the British economy 100 billion pounds a year in lost productivity, lost tax and increased health and welfare costs.
Allbeit a grand figure, this does at least demonstrate why many companies are investing in health and wellbeing programmes. Post recession Britain certainly challenges businesses and employers to be proactive with health, wellbeing and employee benefits packages.
In order to encourage employers in this direction, the Scottish government has invested £1.5 million into their revised approach to encouraging healthy working lives, Health Works. This is based on evidence that health and wellbeing packages do deliver significant bottom line results, when committed to seriously by employers and business leaders.
CBI Scotland, one of the UK’s top business lobby organisations state that “…there is a sound evidence base for workplace policies that support the wellbeing of employees. Most of our [CBI Scotland's] top performing organisations have already embraced this…”.
MCHAP
