The online survey of almost 200 senior HR professionals: Health and wellbeing at work – where we are at and where we need to be, by employee benefits provider, Edenred and health improvement company, energiseYou, finds while many organisations (66%) make the link between employee engagement and wellbeing, not many follow through with a wellbeing strategy in their business (33%).
While nearly half (47%) of the HR professionals surveyed said the health and wellbeing of their staff is good or excellent, this contrasts with employee research, which finds a large majority (80%) of workers score just 40% with regards to their health and energy.
Andy Philpott, sales and marketing director at Edenred, said: "There is an opportunity for organisations to work harder to personalise and communicate wellbeing activities and benefits much more effectively. This will help strengthen the impact of the investment and deliver much better return on investment."
Another issue in the survey was a lack of clarity as to whether objectives were being met.
Fewer than half (46%) of organisations believe their health and wellbeing activities met their objectives, while 11% say they didn't and 39% just don't know, suggesting more work can be done to ensure objectives are set and to measure the return on investment of wellbeing activities.
Managing director of energiseYou, Oliver Gray, said: "Quite often, HR and employee benefit professionals sense that they need to do something when it comes to the health and wellbeing of their staff."
He added: "With sickness absence and stress levels rising in UK workplaces, employee health and wellbeing can no longer be left off the agenda."
The online survey of HR managers and decision-makers was conducted between August and September 2012.