Why men's health is the biggest gap in your employee benefits, and how to build the business case

TL;DR: Most employers have no dedicated men's health support. Male employees disengage from standard support - EAP utilisation among men sits below 3% - yet men account for a disproportionate share of preventable absence, presenteeism and senior attrition. Closing the gap is increasingly a board-level expectation under the Employment Rights Act. This article explains why the gap exists, what the data shows, and what HR and benefits leaders need to build an internal business case for specialist men's health support.

What is "men's health support" in the workplace, and why is it different from an EAP?

Men's health support is dedicated, specialist clinical provision for the health issues that disproportionately affect men - including heart and metabolic health, urology (erectile dysfunction, low testosterone, prostate concerns), cancer signposting, and male-specific mental health.

It differs from an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) or private medical insurance (PMI) in one critical way: design.

EAPs are reactive and built around self-referral - they wait for an employee to raise their hand. Most men don't. PMI is excellent for acute care but kicks in only after a referral. Neither is built around how men actually engage with health support, which is why a specialist, proactive, app-based pathway reaches the men that existing benefits miss.

Why don't men use existing workplace health benefits?

It is not a willingness problem - it is an access-design problem. Three patterns drive the gap:

• Self-perception. 68% of men rate their health as "good" or better, while 54% don't know their own blood pressure. Support built around self-referral won't reach men who don't think they need it.
• Disclosure. Senior men in particular are least likely to disclose health concerns and most expensive to lose. Male depression often presents as performance issues - irritability, withdrawal, declining output - and gets managed as a performance problem, not a health one.
• Channel fit. Men are 32% less likely than women to see a GP. When support is confidential, expert-led and available on their own terms through an app, men do engage and stay engaged.

How big is the men's health gap?

The men’s health gap is a measurable business problem, not a "nice to have":

• 200 out of every 1,000 male employees will die before retirement age.
• Male EAP utilisation sits below 3% - meaning roughly 97 in 100 men won't use it.
• 40% of men have low testosterone, affecting mood, energy and performance.
• UK absence is at a record high of 9.4 days per employee per year, with cardiovascular, prostate and mental-health conditions leading drivers in men.
• 67% of employees work through illness rather than take sick leave - so presenteeism is often a bigger hidden cost than absence.
• In a recent industry poll, 97% of attending employers offered no specific men's health support at all.

Why does building the case for men’s health matter now?

Three forces are converging right now:

1. Regulation. The Employment Rights Act raises the bar on employer duty of care, putting broader, more inclusive health provision under scrutiny.
2. Inclusivity audits. Benefits packages that address women's health and generic mental health but leave men's health untouched are increasingly being flagged in D&I and EVP (employee value proposition) reviews.
3. Talent and EVP. 53% of UK workers say they would change jobs for better benefits, and benefit gaps are now visible to candidates at the point of hire. Wellbeing is a board-level priority for a growing majority of organisations.

What does the ROI on men's health support look like?

While the full ROI model and a ready-to-present business-case framework live in our build the business case for men’s health guide, the headline figures employers use to justify the investment include:

• Up to £5 returned for every £1 invested in preventative workplace health.
• A 35% reduction in presenteeism with access to preventative care.
• Replacement costs for senior leaders reaching up to 200% of salary - making retention of senior men a material financial lever.

Is there evidence that men actually engage with specialist support?

Yes. One example is at an engineering and consultancy employer with a 65% male workforce, Peppy’s men's health service saw 90% of users rate it 10 out of 10, 69% still actively engaged after 90 days, and 21% reporting improved symptoms within six months. Sustained engagement - not a one-off awareness spike - is the signal that the access-design problem has been solved.

Why is dedicated men's health support so rare?

Because, sadly, almost no one offers it. Most EAPs, PMI providers and general wellbeing platforms do not include specialist men's health pathways for issues like prostate health, testosterone, urology or male-specific mental health. This makes men's health a genuine category-of-one opportunity: in most cases an employer isn't choosing between vendors, but deciding whether to close a gap that simply doesn't exist in their current benefits stack.

What does good men's health support cover?

A credible specialist pathway spans:

• Heart and metabolic health - blood pressure, cholesterol, sleep, diabetes prevention
• Urology - erectile dysfunction, low testosterone, prostate and urinary symptoms
• Cancer support - prostate, testicular, bladder and kidney; from awareness through post-diagnosis
• Mental health - depression, anxiety, anger and bereavement, with expert one-to-one practitioners
• Lifestyle and testing - nutrition, fitness, weight, plus PSA tests, testosterone checks and a Men's Health MOT
• A defensible manager pathway - the same expert-led resource for every manager in every location, removing the "postcode lottery" of relying on individual manager confidence.

Frequently asked questions

Is men's health support just a Movember campaign? No. Awareness months build visibility but don't give men somewhere to go the rest of the year. Specialist support is a year-round clinical pathway, not a seasonal campaign.

We already have an EAP and PMI - isn't men's health covered? Rarely in practice. The absence and attrition costs above occur inside organisations that already have an EAP and PMI. The gap is in early, specialist, proactive support designed for how men engage.

Who builds the internal business case for men’s health support? Typically a senior HR/People leader or a benefits/reward specialist, increasingly with finance and ESG leads involved given the duty-of-care and ROI dimensions.

Where can I get the full framework? The complete business case - including the ROI model, the cost-of-inaction calculation, the regulatory detail and a ready-to-present internal template - is available in Peppy's guide: Build the Business Case for Men's Health Support.

Want the full data, the ROI model and a ready-made framework you can take to your leadership team?