Open for participation: 2012 Global Survey of Health Promotion and Workplace Wellness Strategies Survey

Buck Surveys has released the 2012 Global Survey of Health Promotion and Workplace Wellness Strategies Survey; we welcome — and encourage — your participation.

This survey is designed to gain insight into how employers around the world implement and evaluate strategic wellness and health promotion initiatives to improve employee health and morale, control costs, and enhance workforce productivity and performance. The last edition of the survey included responses from more than 1,200 employers in 45 countries.

The survey is jointly sponsored by Pfizer, CIGNA, vielife, and Wolf Kirsten International Health Consulting. And, all participants will receive complimentary copy of the survey results.

For more information about Buck Surveys, we invite you to visit our site.

Nuts! Fighting the stigma of mental illness in the workplace

Walnuts, macadamia nuts, crazy, hazelnuts, peanuts….wait a minute it….
what does crazy have to do with seeds and legumes?

Nobody’s shy about seeking help for a broken arm. But for the 10-15% of Canadians who suffer from a mental illness, seeking help at work is often not an option. The stigma associated with admitting to a mental illness like depression is too huge to overcome. Yet it affects at-work productivity, and can cost a company an average of 12% of payroll.

The biggest challenge of this century: beat the stigma that attaches to mental illness. In this exclusive article, Buck’s Managing Director for Canada, Joseph Ricciuti, offers a 7-point call to action to make the workplace the launch pad for the fight against this stigma.

The private health care market

The private health care market

“Laing & Buisson” are acknowledged as the authoritative source of private health care market intelligence. They have just published their annual review. Its latest findings are always of interest, even though the problems of compilation mean that they are at least a year in arrears.

Market shares between the main insurers change very little from year to year and Bupa remains the market leader with a41% share of the market, AXA PPP are in second place and Aviva in third.

These last statistics account only for insured plans, and thus do not take recognise the 750,000 subscribers, or 18.3% of the total market, that Laing reports as covered by self-insured arrangements. Chiefly these are Health Trusts that enable the largest employers to avoid paying Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) and also to gain a large measure of direct control over their medical benefits plan. Health Trusts have been a steadily growing feature of the market over the last twenty years and are bucking the general trend of reducing numbers. Trusts are a specialist area that requires specialist knowledge, but we believe they are often the right solution for most schemes above a thousand registrations.

In summary, therefore, the private health care market is suffering from the economic recession in common with most industries. It would be wrong to interpret from this that employers are removing, or even cutting back to any great extent, on the provision of medical benefits. Numbers will reduce as a result of firms going out of business or downsizing, but there is no sign that private medical insurance, or the equivalent, is considered to be anything other than an essential part of the employment package for highly valued employees. The growth in Health Trusts indicates, however, that any means of reducing or controlling the cost of the benefit will be closely examined.

I am the Managing Director of Buck Consultants in Europe. The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not necessarily represent Buck’s positions, strategies, or ideas.