Exclusive research reveals future health of UK workforce is under threat

An overwhelming 97% of senior HR professionals believe stress is the biggest threat to the future health of the UK workforce, exclusive research has revealed.

Virtually all of the 600 senior HR executives surveyed by Personnel Today magazine and healthcare provider HSA think that failure to properly manage stress is the number one threat to the future health of their employees.

Working longer hours and not taking enough holiday ñ both seen as key causes of stress ñ were other big contributors to poor wellbeing, the Whoís Looking After Our Health? study found. More than a third (36%) of employers predicted that the health of UK workers would decline in the next five to 10 years.

Sickness absence costs the UK about 12bn a year, according to Health and Safety Executive figures. Stress accounts for almost a third of that at an estimated 3.7bn a year.

Suzanne Clarkson, head of corporate marketing at HSA, said employers needed to put in more provisions for dealing with stress. ìEmployers must do more to encourage employees to look after their health. The message needs to be relayed more strongly.î she said.

A spokeswoman from the Department of Health said that the governmentís health, work and wellbeing strategy, launched last year, was making an important contribution to reducing occupational ill health.