Personify Health & Ipsos Release New Report on U.S. Employee Health and Productivity Trends

Washington, DC, May 16, 2024—A new Personify Health/Ipsos poll finds that investing in health and wellbeing makes a big impact. Employees who say their employer has optimized their health and wellbeing program (vs. a basic or mid-stage program) have better outcomes across the board, including fewer employee issues, health having less impact on job performance, and less time wasted searching for answers about their benefits programs. The poll also finds that health and wellbeing issues can negatively impact productivity and culture, and that employees desire benefits that better align with the personal needs.

For more information about this study, please click here.

Detailed Findings:

1. Employee health investment can reap big rewards.

• More than 75% of those with an optimized program do not report burnout as a major problem at their company, while 52% of respondents whose companies have a beginner-stage program report burnout as a major issue.
• Nearly half (48%) of those with a basic program indicated their work was impacted by their mental/emotional health over the past 12 months, compared to 30% with an optimized program.

2. Health and wellbeing issues impact productivity and culture.

• Mental and emotional health is most likely to have an impact on employees’ ability to do their jobs (41%), followed by physical health (30%), and financial health and social wellbeing (22% each).
• Among those whose ability to do their jobs has been impacted by their health, the majority say they have less enthusiasm (69%) or more trouble focusing at work (55%).
• Of note, employees with chronic diseases are more likely to report frequent absences impacting their performance.
• About three in five respondents say they regularly experience low periods of productivity on a typical day. Employees under 35 years of age (67%), women (66%), and non-managers (62%) are most likely to report periods of low energy on an average day, or even struggle to focus.
• Eight out of ten employees say that burnout is an issue and 66% say there is a poor work-life balance at their company.

3. Employees want benefits aligned with their needs, as well as support in navigating the healthcare system.

• Those with basic or beginner-stage health and wellbeing programs are less confident in the care they are receiving (41%) compared to those with optimized programs (79%).
• When navigating the healthcare system and making informed choices, most employees use between two and five websites, portals, or apps to access their organization's benefits (58%).
• Nearly two in five (39%) said they did not receive help from anyone in making healthcare decisions.

4. Employees want their companies to help improve the health, wellbeing, and focus of employees at work through:

• Integrated offerings – One-third (33%) want unified access to their healthcare and benefits offerings. 
• Customized options – Nearly three in ten (27%) want their company to offer personalized benefits that meet the needs and goals for their households and themselves. 
• Better communication – More than one in three (32%) want their companies to communicate more regularly about benefits – and they want it to be tailored to their individual needs.
• More motivation - Nearly two in five (38%) believe incentives would help motivate them to engage with their benefits. 

About the Study

This poll was conducted March 13-20, 2024, by Ipsos using the probability-based KnowledgePanel®. This poll is based on a nationally representative probability sample of 2,011 general population adults age 18 or older. To qualify for the survey, respondents had to be employed, work at a company with at least five thousand (5,000) employees, and be enrolled in a health care plan through their employer. The sample includes 702 respondents that manage people directly or indirectly, and 1,299 respondents that do not manage people.

The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.6 percentage points for at the 95% confidence level, for results based on the entire sample of adults. The margin of sampling error takes into account the design effect, which was 1.42 for all respondents. The margin of sampling error is higher and varies for results based on other sub-samples. In our reporting of the findings, percentage points are rounded off to the nearest whole number. As a result, percentages in a given table column may total slightly higher or lower than 100%. In questions that permit multiple responses, columns may total substantially more than 100%, depending on the number of different responses offered by each respondent.

The survey was conducted using KnowledgePanel, the largest and most well-established online probability-based panel that is representative of the adult U.S. population. Our recruitment process employs a scientifically developed addressed-based sampling methodology using the latest Delivery Sequence File of the USPS – a database with full coverage of all delivery points in the U.S. Households invited to join the panel are randomly selected from all available households in the U.S. Persons in the sampled households are invited to join and participate in the panel. Those selected who do not already have internet access are provided a tablet and internet connection at no cost to the panel member. Those who join the panel and who are selected to participate in a survey are sent a unique password-protected log-in used to complete surveys online. As a result of our recruitment and sampling methodologies, samples from KnowledgePanel cover all households regardless of their phone or internet status and findings can be reported with a margin of sampling error and projected to the general population.

The data for the total sample were weighted to adjust for gender by age, race/ethnicity, education, Census region, metropolitan status, and household income. The demographic benchmarks came from the 2023 March Supplement of the Current Population Survey (CPS). The weighting categories were as follows:

• Gender (Male, Female) by Age (18–29, 30–44, 45-59 and 60+)
• Race/Hispanic Ethnicity (White Non-Hispanic, Black Non-Hispanic, Other, Non-Hispanic, Hispanic, 2+ Races, Non-Hispanic)
• Education (Less than High School, High School, Some College, Bachelor or higher)
• Census Region (Northeast, Midwest, South, West)
• Metropolitan status (Metro, non-Metro)
• Household Income (Under $25,000, $25,000-$49,999, $50,000-$74,999, $75,000-$99,999, $100,000-$149,999, $150,000+)

About Ipsos

Ipsos is one of the largest market research and polling companies globally, operating in 90 markets and employing over 18,000 people.

Our passionately curious research professionals, analysts and scientists have built unique multi-specialist capabilities that provide true understanding and powerful insights into the actions, opinions and motivations of citizens, consumers, patients, customers or employees. Our 75 solutions are based on primary data from our surveys, social media monitoring, and qualitative or observational techniques.

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