The Work Foundation at Lancaster University and the Centre for Organisational Health & Wellbeing surveyed more than 1,000 senior business leaders across the UK to understand how employers are supporting the health of their workforce. They compared their findings with a similar survey carried out in 2024 reveals encouraging signs of progress - but also highlights persistent inequalities that risk leaving many workers behind.

There are reasons to be optimistic. Employers appear to be making progress in supporting healthier working lives.

One-third (33%) of employers reported that health-related exits from their organisation had fallen over the previous two years, compared with just 21% in 2024. This suggests that more organisations may be succeeding in retaining workers who might otherwise have left employment because of poor health.

Confidence among employers is also high. Across 15 different measures of workplace health support, an average of 80% of employers said they felt well or very well equipped to meet the health needs of their workforce. Many organisations recognise that supporting employee health is not simply a wellbeing initiative but a business necessity that helps improve productivity, retention and resilience.

However, beneath this encouraging picture lies a much more uneven reality.

Despite employers expressing confidence, the actual support available to workers varies considerably. Across 12 key forms of health support – including occupational health, enhanced sick pay and flexible working – only around 36% of employers provide each individual measure on average.

Some of the gaps are particularly striking.

Nearly three in five employers (58%) do not offer paid time off for employees to attend medical appointments. Yet for many workers managing long-term conditions, attending routine appointments is essential to maintaining their health and staying in work. Without paid leave, employees may delay treatment or face difficult choices between protecting their health and protecting their income.

Similarly, fewer than four in ten employers (39%) provide access to occupational health services, despite strong evidence that occupational health can help employees remain in work and recover more effectively. Less than half (44%) say they proactively design jobs with employees' health needs in mind, missing opportunities to prevent health problems from arising in the first place.

These findings suggest that while many employers value workforce health, preventive approaches are far from becoming standard practice.

Perhaps the most concerning finding is that access to workplace health support is not evenly distributed.

Workers who may benefit most from additional support are often the least likely to receive it.

Employers with predominantly older workforces aged 55 and over provide significantly less health support than average. Employers with largely low-income workforces also lag behind, as do those employing predominantly women or younger workers aged 16 to 24.

Business size is another major factor. While almost every large employer offers at least some form of health support, more than one in four microbusinesses provide none at all.

This matters because smaller businesses employ millions of people across the UK but often lack the resources, expertise or capacity to develop comprehensive health and wellbeing programmes. Without additional support, inequalities between workers employed by large organisations and those working for smaller firms are likely to widen.

Building healthier workplaces

If the UK is serious about reducing economic inactivity caused by ill health, improving workplace health cannot rely solely on the efforts of individual employers. Government, employers and health services all have a role to play.

The report sets out four recommendations:

• Prevention should become a core part of good employment practice. Designing jobs that promote good physical and mental health from the outset is often more effective than responding once someone becomes unwell.
• Local work and health hubs could provide practical support for small and medium-sized employers, giving them access to expertise and services that would otherwise be beyond their reach.
• Piloting a supported workdays framework could enable employees experiencing periods of reduced capacity to remain connected to work while receiving appropriate support, rather than leaving employment altogether.
• The Government should consult on introducing a statutory right to paid time off for medical appointments. Such a measure could help workers manage their health earlier, reduce preventable sickness absence and ultimately support more people to remain in employment.
• Looking ahead

  The Government's new focus on workforce health presents an important opportunity. But if employer-led approaches are to succeed, they must reach all workers not just those employed by large organisations or in sectors with established health support.

The research shows that many employers are committed to supporting healthier working lives, and there are encouraging signs that progress is being made. Yet significant inequalities remain in who has access to meaningful workplace health support.

Closing these gaps will be essential if we are to build a healthier, more inclusive labour market where more people can stay in work, thrive and contribute throughout their working lives.