The burden of cancer is increasing in Europe and globally. For employers, this means rising healthcare costs, insurance claims and employee sickness absence.
Our latest Global Medical Trends survey shows that insurance carriers indicate that cancer is currently the number one driver of claims costs in Europe. It’s clear from these statistics that this is a significant regional, and indeed global, issue. And data published in 2022 by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre indicates that this issue is only going to get worse in the next 15 years, exacerbated by an aging European population.
In the coming years, employees are likely to need to work until later in life to be able to afford their retirement, which in turn means healthcare costs associated with this population will become an even greater issue for employers in the region. And as state and social healthcare support and access to care varies across the region, this is where employers have an opportunity to intervene and make a difference to health outcomes for employees and, with that, to the costs for our organizations.
As employers, having a targeted and structured health and wellbeing program to empower employees to make good lifestyle and behavioural decisions, and to receive treatment when it is needed quickly, is key. We know from our broader research into employee experience, that companies who have an effective wellbeing strategy are more successful as businesses.
There is strong business logic in proactively supporting and managing long-term health conditions in the workplace. This is an evolutionary process and, as employers, we will all be on a journey to providing better support and more targeted benefits and communications for our employees.
Lucie McGrath, Head of Wellbeing for Europe and Stephanie Parton-Corr, U.K. Wellbeing leader hosted our latest webcast looking at how employers can optimize their healthcare benefits and wellbeing programs to reduce the impact of cancer on their workforces.
Three key takeaways:
Our external speakers:
You can access the webcast replay by completing the form on the right or below on a mobile device.
The Working with Cancer Pledge, started by Publicis, is a fantastic opportunity for employers at any stage in their journey to provide better support for colleagues with cancer, to assess their policies and programs, and to ensure employees are aware of the benefits available to them. A core part of the commitment to the Pledge is to monitor and track progress, which we see those organizations who are leading and transforming the wellbeing space doing as part of their approach.
To find out more about how we can help to improve the health and wellbeing of your organization, please get in touch.
