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“Over half of UK employees are struggling to make long-term changes to their lifestyles, but believe they could adopt healthier practices with more help from their employers,” reports the UK publication Insights.

The piece reports on a study of 2,000 UK employees by the healthcare firm Bupa. The research found that “more than 85 percent of employees believe they would be more productive if they were able to stick to positive lifestyle changes in the long-term, two in five (44 percent) would love their work to help them make positive changes to their lifestyle and half (48 percent) say a regular wellness review would help with this.”

Importantly, the desired improvements weren't just in physical health. Mental health improvements mattered, too: “Three quarters of employees (73 percent) have chosen to change their lifestyle to feel more physically healthy, with nearly half (46 percent) changing to improve mental health.”

Dr Steven Luttrell, Medical Director at Bupa UK, is quoted: “Improving the wellbeing of workers in the UK needs a proactive effort, yet unfortunately many employers are failing to see the value of health and wellbeing initiatives. By supporting staff to make positive lifestyle changes, employers can also benefit from healthy and productive workforce.”

Additional research may point to a further concern about workplace health that employers could address: “Nearly a third of employers have reported an increase in people coming to work while they are ill, according to the annual CIPD / Simplyhealth Absence Management Survey.”

This piece, also reported by Insights, notes that “employers that have noticed an increase in presenteeism are nearly twice as likely as those that haven’t to report an increase in stress-related absence, and more than twice as likely to report an increase in mental health problems amongst its staff. However, despite this, nearly three-fifths (56 percent) of organisations that have reported an increase in presenteeism haven’t taken any steps in order to discourage it.”

The study provides another example of the role that company leadership can play in driving improved workplace wellness:

“The CIPD believes that more organisations should be developing employee wellbeing strategies in order to promote good health in the workplace. There should be a clear focus on values and organisational culture, quality of leadership and management, as well as early access to good quality occupational health and rehabilitation support.”