According to a survey of more than 1,000 employees by health insurer Simply Health, 43 per cent of employees do not feel their employer does anything to look after their wellbeing at work.

Simply Health marketing director James Glover says, ‘Wellbeing is highly valued by employees and a key driver in their level of job satisfaction, loyalty and motivation. If employers fail to communicate that they care, they could lose talented people as soon as the job market starts to recover.’

The research also finds that health and wellbeing has a direct impact on loyalty in the workplace, with three quarters of employees who feel their employer cares a great deal about them describing themselves as loyal. In contrast, this drops to just 3 per cent for those that feel their employer doesn’t care.

Three out of ten employees whose employer does not care say they are actively looking for work elsewhere, a number seven times higher than those who do feel their employer cares about health and wellbeing.

Nick Kemsley of Henley Business School says, ‘Research indicates that there are links between high engagement and improvements in absenteeism, discretionary effort and employee retention, and therefore to productivity. Although health and wellbeing is only one contributing factor to a fully engaged workforce research does show that feeling worthwhile and valued is key to an employee’s psychological contract with an employer.

‘Given that there is unlikely to be a sudden relaxation in financial constraints around employee health and wellbeing, employers would perhaps be wise to consider the most cost effective means to maintaining tangible key benefits, whilst still finding ways to enhance engagement that are less reliant on money.’