David Camerons notion of Wellbeing ñ fleeting fad or visionary vote winner?

Conservative party leader David Cameron announced this week that ìwellbeingî would represent one of the partyís key policies for the forthcoming period. But is this really such a radical new concept, and will it represent a genuine vote-winning strategy for the Tories? Suzanne Clarkson from health benefits provider HSA comments:
ìIt seems that wellbeing has become the latest political pawn, but this concept really doesnít represent merely a buzzword. Rather, we have seen it gradually filtering into the culture, values and general behaviour of UK companies for some time. The Labour party, for example, promoted similar proposals a couple of years ago in its Public Health White Paper Choosing Health. The term wellbeing wasnít explicitly stated in this document but the concept was very similar ñ it put forward proposals for improving the health and happiness of the UK population, suggesting that the workplace would be the ideal platform on which to achieve these aims.

ìThe focus on employee wellbeing or, put more simply, ëprevention rather than cureí was initially borne out of the need to find a solution to the problem of staff turnover and increasing levels of absenteeism*. Companies have traditionally dealt with staff absence on a very reactive, ad hoc, basis but are now beginning to recognise the benefits of wellness management with regards to helping to transform demotivated and unhappy employees into healthy high performers.

ìThe implementation of benefits that promote a proactive approach to healthcare represents a good starting point, along with the integration of wellbeing practices into corporate strategy, such as with work/life balance policies.

ìOnly time will tell whether the concept of wellbeing is a fleeting fad. That said, it doesnít take a genius to work out that if a company ensures that employees feel valued by helping to improve their general health and happiness, this should go a long way towards achieving an overall improvement in workforce commitment, productivity and motivation,î concludes Suzanne.

The latest Employee Benefits / HSA Healthcare Survey reveals that the move towards more proactive ways to improve workplace health is already happening.

For example, the survey revealed a noticeable move towards more ëproactiveí ways of promoting health and wellbeing, such as the new generation of health cash plans.
The results revealed considerable movement with regards to the benefits provided to individuals within certain job functions. For instance, it is interesting that the percentage of senior executives and senior managers receiving traditional PMI has decreased by 24% and 80% respectively. And amongst these same two management tiers health cash plan provision has increased by a huge 418% and 55% over the last year.

Furthermore, the number of middle managers and the general workforce receiving health cash plans has also increased.