Leading global advisory, broking and solutions company Willis Towers Watson today launched a new index which will help employers gain insights into the effectiveness of their employee health and wellbeing programs.

While companies are investing heavily in wellbeing in their workplaces, employee engagement with these programs remains low. 

“We saw the need for a tool that would help companies build employee wellbeing and reduce risk, as well as measure and benchmark improvements in workforce productivity. We have developed our Employee Wellbeing Indicator to support this,” said Lesley Brown, Asia Pacific Leader, Employee Surveys and Insights at Willis Towers Watson.

The tool measures the current wellbeing of employees in physical, psychological, social and financial terms and identifies the areas of concern that will affect productivity.

The Global Benefits Attitudes Study, released earlier this year, shows that 50% of Australian employees with current financial concerns indicated that their worries keep them from doing their best at work. Globally, one in four employees have health issues, are worried about their finances, plan to work into their 70s and are disengaged.

A further Willis Towers Watson survey, the Asia-Pacific Benefits Trends report revealed that employees were expecting further benefits from their organizations in the health and wellness space. It found 74% of employers were considering behavioral or emotional health management programs, while 55% were looking at activity-based wellbeing programs and 50% of employers identified lifestyle risk management as their key area of investment. The missing link was for employers to gauge the efficacy and return on investment of such programs.

The Employee Wellbeing Indicator is to help companies identify areas of strength and high performance, pinpoint where they need to focus to build employee wellbeing, productivity, and overall business performance and track progress over time. 

Brown added: “We are looking to go beyond traditional health programs and employee engagement surveys. This is an integrated solution that uses consumer-grade software, underpinned by robust research methodologies. Individual company results will also be benchmarked against Australia’s most comprehensive national norm.

“The Global Benefits Attitudes Study showed that employers need to look at programs that leverage the workplace environment and promote the use of new technologies. These are both strongly linked to more positive attitudes by employees about their company’s wellbeing efforts and to health management.”

The 2018 survey window for employers to participate in the Employee Wellbeing Indicator starts 22 October and runs until 30 November.