Employee Health going into Winter

Winter comes with plenty of excitement – like holidays, snow, and mulled wine! Unfortunately, it also comes with waves of sickness. Most of us are unlucky enough to get the sniffles at least once toward the end of the year, and with Covid still making the rounds, staff absence is likely to increase.

While staff sickness is inevitable, there are steps that you can take to reduce the impact on attendance, and help your team to get back to full health quicker.

What are the common winter sicknesses in the UK?

Some common illnesses that may rear their ugly heads during winter will be flus, colds, Covid, Norovirus, and more. Most people will experience a cough, sore throat, blocked nose, headaches, and/or congestion over the winter, and unfortunately, the likelihood of spreading this illness to others is high.

So how can you protect your employees, reduce staff sickness, and maintain a healthy work environment?

How to Prevent Employee Sickness

When employees have a viral illness, encourage them to stay home. If we learned anything from the Covid-19 pandemic, it is how easily illness can spread between people. So, whether it’s a cough, flu, or Covid, it goes without saying that employees should avoid coming into work. Managers and HR, it is worth reminding staff every winter season that they should avoid coming into work sick; encourage employees to stay home if they are contagious and avoid having a large portion of your workforce being made ill at the same time. If staff can work from home and are sick with even mild symptoms, allowing them to work remotely can help to stop their sickness doing the rounds.

Another key thing to maintain staff health is to ensure that work environments are suitable; making sure that temperatures in the workplace are adequate, uniforms can be adjusted to include more/fewer layers can help employees to keep healthy and happy. Also, ensuring that social distancing and ventilation are utilised during contagious outbreaks can reduce the risk – think the ‘stop the spread’ messaging we’ve been hearing for years!

You can also offer employees discounts on Health products, such as gym memberships, supplements, health and beauty shopping, and pharmacies. This can ease financial strain, and ensure that employees are accessing the health support they need, while saving a bit of money too!

For that extra safety net, you can provide your people with Health Insurance benefits, giving access to Health Cash Plans, financial compensation for hospital stays, and money off routine appointments. When experiencing illness, worrying about money should be the last thing on the mind, so providing health solutions for staff can be a huge relief.

Set your workplace up against winter sickness with health discounts, health solutions, and health insurance plans; get in touch to learn more.