September marks Cardiovascular Health Awareness month—a timely opportunity for HR, benefits, and wellbeing leaders across Europe to address one of the most pressing health risks facing their workforce. This article explores how increased cardiovascular health awareness and management can reduce absenteeism, lower insurance costs, and improve employee engagement and productivity.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death in Europe, contributing to over 1.8 million avoidable global deaths from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) annually [1]. In countries like Germany, France, and Poland, CVD accounts for more than 40% of all premature deaths [2]. The economic toll of NCDs, including CVD, is staggering.
$514bn The cost of lost productivity and healthcare expenses in Europe.
In comparison, WTW’s 2025 Benefit Trends Survey [3] research highlights that only two in ten employers are planning to tackle high-cost medical conditions, such as CVD, as part of their benefits strategy. A further four in ten stated that they were facing challenges implementing health benefits for their organization, and three in ten faced issues with introducing wellbeing programs to help them address and manage health risks.
The WHO warns that deteriorating public healthcare systems in Europe are pushing more people into private care [5]. Across Europe, we see pressure on state-funded healthcare and long-term management for key conditions such as musculoskeletal, mental health and diabetes and CVD.
In many countries, access to state-funded primary care services can be challenging, and there has been a sharp rise in the provision and adoption of telehealth solutions within the state and private healthcare sectors. Whilst this has alleviated the initial issue of prompt access to primary care services for employees, an unintended by-product appears to be the increasing impact on healthcare plan utilization, as virtual providers struggle to make referrals back into state primary care services and cannot perform the same, in-person, diagnostic assessments that would take place in a doctor’s office creating often unnecessary referrals into secondary level medical care.
This is increasing pressure on employer-sponsored health insurance programs and highlights the need for a more proactive approach to employee health engagement and management.
The 2025 WTW Global Medical Trends Survey [6] highlights that musculoskeletal and cardiovascular conditions are the most frequent causes of claims, especially in aging workforces, and cardiovascular conditions are among the top three cost drivers in employer-sponsored health plans.
Health and disability employee benefit costs are increasing across the European region, often at an unsustainable rate. Six in ten employers in Western Europe stated that rising benefit costs or financial pressures on budgets are a key issue for their organization in the 2025 WTW Benefit Trends Survey [7].
Medical inflation is estimated to be over 8% across the region in 2025, adding further pressure for HR professionals looking to maximize benefit spend for their organizations. In the UK, costs of medical care are projected to increase by almost 13% in 2025, with many organizations facing increases to premiums of over 20% - an experience that is consistent with many more European countries such as Portugal, Spain and Poland.
Insurance premiums
rose by an average of 9.3% in Europe in 2024, driven largely by preventable conditions [10].
WTW’s 2024 Wellbeing Diagnostic [11] research into organizational wellbeing found that employers with effective wellbeing programs achieved financial and human capital gains that were twice those of organizations with less effective strategies. This is reinforced by WTW’s 2024 Global Benefits Attitudes Survey [12], which found that:
82% Of employees whose health benefits meet their needs intended to stay with their employer.
54% Of employees cited wellbeing support as a key reason for joining or staying with a company.
2x Of younger workers are more likely to engage with employers offering digital health tools.
Employers can no longer afford to rely on reactive health risk data, health strategies and benefit programs. Increasingly, leading organizations are working to analyze their health data and identify future health risks, trends and hot spots linked to employee demographics. WTW’s recent Benefit Trends Survey found that five in ten employers plan to use forecasting and risk analytics over the next three years to better understand and manage organizational risk and benefit spend.
Machine learning and AI is enabling even greater interpretation of data sets, predicting future healthcare costs at specific condition level and enabling modelling of intervention impacts from benefits such as targeted health screening or chronic condition management support.
WTW’s health data analytics solutions enable organizations to:
Launch a heart health campaign in September
Use internal communications, webinars, and digital posters to raise awareness of cardiovascular risks and prevention. Leveraging disability and private healthcare benefit providers to support initiatives can reduce both cost and administrative burdens for employers.
Leverage health technology and digital monitoring tools
Integrate digital solutions like Elfieworks for scalable, consistent employee engagement experience using AI-powered health tracking.
Offer targeted health screenings
Provide free or subsidized blood pressure, cholesterol, and BMI checks for employees that are easy for them to access – either in the office, or at a convenient local setting such as a pharmacy or specific screening center. Predictive health analytics can help organizations identify key at-risk groups so that engagement communications can be tailored to maximize education and awareness of the offering.
Promote active and healthy lifestyles
Physical activity has been shown to reduce CVD risk[13], with other lifestyle behaviors such as quitting smoking, eating a healthy diet, and reducing alcohol consumption also making significant impacts on heart health risks. Encouraging walking meetings, offering discounted gym/exercise class memberships, and step challenges, as well as promoting healthy lifestyle awareness, can all help improve employee physical and emotional wellbeing.
Embed health and wellbeing in your benefits strategy
Leading employers are focusing on using health and wellbeing benefits to demonstrate their organizational purpose and values, with WTW’s 2025 Benefits Trends Survey survey indicating that 40% of employers in Europe intend to move to this approach in the next three years [14]. Tools like WTW’s Wellbeing Diagnostic can help organizations to align health initiatives with business goals.
Cardiovascular Health Awareness Month offers an opportunity for employers to address a key organizational health risk and positively impact both human capital and financial outcomes. By investing in prevention, digital tools, and data-driven strategies, employers can reduce costs, boost engagement, and build a healthier, more resilient workforce.
