Vitality at Work
VitalityHealth’s new Vitality at Work plan offers small to medium sized businesses (SMEs) a wellness programme that can cover all employees, giving them a range of key health benefits in a cost-effective way.
Employers can therefore extend preventative healthcare services and outcomes information to their entire workforce, not just those covered by PMI.
Vitality says the aim is to support employers addressing leading causes of absence and helping them to support employees who want to live healthier lifestyles. The plan gives fast access to a private virtual GP, physiotherapy services and a range of mental health support and treatment. It also gives access to a number of lifestyle benefits and rewards through the Vitality Programme. This includes discounted gym membership, running shoes and fitness devices.
Employers can get information on their workforce’s health through Vitality Healthchecks and Vitality Age - a measure using aspects of a person’s wellness, such as exercise levels and nutrition, to assess how healthy they are, making it relative to their age.
Key benefits include:
• Unlimited video consultations with a private GP.
• Unlimited physiotherapy.
• Mental health support through talking therapies such as CBT or counselling, online resources and Vitality’s Healthy Mind programme.
• Access to aspects of the Vitality Programme. This includes discounted gym membership, running shoes and fitness trackers, plus health checks and discounted screenings.
• Healthy lifestyle rewards, including discounts on flight and hotel bookings, plus regular rewards for reaching activity-related targets.
Clients with at least ten employees with full PMI can select Vitality at Work for £7.50 per person per month for their wider workforce.
The plan also offers incentives for businesses that encourage their employees to maintain healthy lifestyle habits and engage with the Vitality Programme, and they can earn up to 10% cashback of their annual premium on renewal.
Vitality says its annual Britain’s Healthiest Workplace has consistently shown a strong correlation between employees’ lifestyle choices, their physical and mental health, and how they perform at work. Its 2019 study found that the top businesses in terms of employee health and wellbeing, demonstrated productivity losses 40% lower than the least healthy firms did.
Comment: Many SMEs want to try to influence their employees’ lifestyle choices but that is not an easy or inexpensive task. One partial solution is full PMI cover, but many SMEs can’t afford that – at least not for everyone.
However, if enough workers have PMI cover, a number of benefits can be made available to all employees, and at relatively low cost through this new plan from Vitality.
Firms get valuable management information too, so enabling them to see how this plan works in practice and giving invaluable data on which to structure their wellness strategies.
The cost is reasonable, although some SMEs might look instead to add a cheap £1 week health cash plan to provide some, albeit different, benefits in the wellness space.
Plus points: A useful range of employee wellness benefits; Valuable MI provided; Can cover all employees; Low cost.
Not so plus points: Minimum level of PMI cover needed to be able to add these benefits; Cost of £90 a year may be seen as too much by some employers, especially against an HCP that could cost £1 a week .
Website: http://www.vitality.co.uk.
Rating (max 10): Overall: 8.5. Gold
Tags: Other/VitalityHealth