Employers serious about staff health

Nearly 30% of employers now offer incentives to encourage staff to take fewer sick days, according to a new European survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting.

In the Europe-wide survey, almost half of employers promote health initiatives and benefits to reduce sickness absence.

Six in 10 employers are concerned that health ben-efit costs will rise signifi-cantly as the average age of the workforce increases, the survey found.