Bupa Global – the international insurance arm of healthcare giant Bupa – has teamed up with non-profit member organisation HERO to launch a new online service, designed to help businesses evaluate their health and wellbeing programmes.

The HERO International Scorecard will be marketed as an online tool for employers and organisations, enabling them to create an inventory of health and wellbeing best practice.

It will also allow employers to benchmark their performance and understand how they can instigate improvements in their programmes.

The scorecard surveys employers on a range of workplace health factors – such as promotion and integration of employee health initiatives, participation rates, cost, and organisational and cultural support – using measures recommended by an expert panel.

Responses to the survey allow employers to assess the effectiveness of their programmes and track progress over time.

In addition to using the scorecard to create an inventory of health and wellbeing best practice, organisations can compare their programmes to other businesses, by correlating their scores against the aggregate of all businesses in the database.

They can also compare their score to similar employers based on industry, size, geographic location, employee demographics or other criteria.

Patrick Watt, Bupa Global's commercial director for Europe, said: “With half of the world’s population in work, employees increasingly expect their employer to play an active role in their health and wellbeing, yet some businesses still don’t appreciate the commercial and strategic value of workplace health initiatives.

"That’s why we’ve partnered with Hero to give our customers the means to measure and report on the impact of the workplace health programmes they have implemented.

“Workplace health is a key way for businesses to attract and retain talent – but it’s important to partner with an experienced provider who can support in the provision, promotion and execution of these kinds of initiatives.”