The 86%: The Beating Heart of the UK Workforce and Why It’s at Risk Without Action

As we head into the final quarter of the year, many organisations are focused on maximising value from 2025 while laying the groundwork for a successful 2026. Strategic shifts around workforce healthcare will be key to achieving this, but are we taking a broad enough view? 

The data suggests we are not. 

According to The Association of British Insurers (ABI), 4.7 million are covered by employer health schemes leaving 86% of UK employees without. This issue is especially pronounced in industries with large blue-collar workforces, which tend to rely more heavily on the NHS compared to professional firms that typically invest more in employee benefits, in my many conversations with UK intermediaries and employers over the past 12 months, this ‘health gap’ is a mainstay on the corporate agenda, and for good reason. 

So, what does this mean for employers and for the very employees who keep their businesses running? 

Let’s break it down using a 500-employee business as an example: 

• 440 employees are likely uninsured. 

• These individuals could collectively spend 26,000 working days this year waiting for primary care appointments alone (CQC, RCGP’s). 

• Based on a 17.5% drop in productivity (Stanford Presenteeism Scale) while unwell or awaiting treatment, this could cost the employer £655,000 annually for an average salary of £37,430. 

And remember: 90% of healthcare ‘patient contact’ happens at the primary care level (Uk Parliament). That makes this issue impossible to ignore when it comes to tackling employee absence. According to CIPD, average absence has jumped from 5.8 days per employee pre-pandemic to 9.4 days today, an increase that would cost our sample employer with a 500-person workforce an additional £238,000 annually. 

Now consider this: Providing digital healthcare access for all 500 employees could cost less than £15,000 a year, meaning that a reduction of just half a day in absenteeism per employee per year would double the return on investment alone (£35,000), before measuring productivity and retention impact, It’s clear that small and strategic changes can move the dial significantly. 

If we consider the blue-collar workforce, those delivering our parcels, stacking our shelves, operating vital machinery as the beating heart of the UK economy, then growing delays in access to care are a dangerous clog in the artery. If left unchecked, the result could be a national scale, metaphorical cardiac arrest. 

The good news? We still have time to act. 

Workforce healthcare has never been more accessible, and Lime Health is committed to widening that access with: 

• Flexible healthcare solutions 

• A data driven platform that enables smart investment and measurable ROI 

• Accessible healthcare, like the NHS, just faster 

• Interconnected employee care that supports individuals from A to B 

Now’s the time to invest in the 86% before it’s too late.