Strategy for workforce health needed

The employers in China revealed a bias towards focusing on more tangible, rather than strategic aspects of health and productivity in the survey. In all other parts of Asia as well as in the US, when it comes to top health and productivity priorities, organization's ranked building a culture of health and employee accountability as their number one aim, whereas in China, employers ranked stress management at the top. While a culture of health may be less tangible and measurable than running specialized programs, it marks the difference between a string of ad-hoc programs and a comprehensive strategy that lasts beyond any one activity.

The second-biggest obstacle identified in China is a lack of evidence on returns of health and productivity programs. This could be considered a self-inflicted challenge - most employers in China do not measure their own programs, making it difficult if not impossible to demonstrate evidence internally over time. While the majority, 66 percent, measure medical claims data on a regular basis, for all other data sources the rates of regular measurement are much lower: 39 percent for employee engagement data, 36 percent for preventative care utilization, 23 percent for unplanned absence data, 22 percent for employee satisfaction with health and productivity programs, 16 percent for participation in health and productivity programs, 13 percent for lifestyle related risk data. It is critical that employers deploy a planned measurement strategy from the outset, since research suggests it takes two to three years for returns to become apparent.

The respondents in China reported using cutting-edge tactics to encourage employee interaction for health and productivity, roughly twice as much as the employers in India, and around 40 percent more than the average in Asia. China leads the region for sponsoring individual or team competitions between business locations or employee groups, with 63 percent of employers doing this compared to 26 percent in India, 29 percent in Singapore and 36 percent in Southeast Asia. China also leads in the use of social media tools, with 33 percent of employers deploying this tactic compared to 16 percent in India, 20 percent in Singapore and 19 percent in Southeast Asia 19 percent. In our analysis these were both seen as distinguishing features of high-effectiveness companies and correlated with attainment of business outcomes.

While organizations in China have expressed a strong focus on health and productivity, currently they have not been successful in matching their actions to their priorities. Responses suggest employers in China conceptualize health and productivity on a more tangible rather than strategic level, and have not tackled the specific health issues their work force face, which has inhibited them from translating interest into outcomes. Nonetheless they have made major headway, and with a focus on creating a more comprehensive and targeted strategy employers in China can build effective programs that show profound human capital and business impacts.

The author is Asia-Pacific director of global health and group benefits at Towers Watson.