The biggest signal that someone is struggling with their health shouldn’t be the day they stop turning up to work.Yet for many employers, sickness absence is still one of the clearest measures they have of workforce health. By the time someone is absent for a prolonged period, the opportunity to support them earlier may already have been missed.Today, the Government-backedKeep Britain Working programme published its latest report, A National Growth Opportunity, putting prevention, earlier intervention and better workplace health intelligence at the heart of the challenge of keeping more people healthy and in work.New data from YuLife helps show why that mattersYuLife has analysed more than 67 million health responses collected through our Dynamic Health Questionnaire, including 50 million in the past year.More than half of employees are working through ill healthThe data comes from more than 5 million daily health check ins by 70,000 employees, giving us a picture of health that develops over time rather than through a one-offf survey.What the data saysOf the 21K+ employees who answered this question in their YuLife check-ins, 54% said they had worked while unwell, in pain or struggling with their mental health in the previous month.More than one in four (28%) had done so several times or most days, and 9% said it happened most days. Younger employees were hit hardest. 34% of under-35s had worked through ill health several times or most days, compared with 22% of those over 50.None of this shows up in absence figures, because these employees were still at work. That means a significant amount of ill health is already present in the workforce long before it appears as sickness absence.The warning signs can appear much earlierOur data also shows clear associations between some health and financial challenges and reported sickness absence.Employees experiencing severe chronic pain were three times as likely to report taking time off because of a health condition as those without it, and 2.4 times as likely to regularly work through ill health.Financial wellbeing also matters. Employees who said they would be unprepared if their income stopped were 2.5 times as likely to report health related time off.Sleep, mental wellbeing and financial pressure all show similar relationships with presenteeism or absence in the data.These findings don’t mean that any one factor causes someone to take time off. But they reinforce an important point.Absence doesn’t begin on the first day someone is off work.The signals can be there much earlier.Seeing the signal only matters if you can act on itThis is where engagement becomes critical.A health platform can only build a meaningful picture of changing health if people actually use it.At YuLife, 81% of users have completed at least two health check ins, the median user has completed 11, and nearly half of all users have at least six months of history.That sustained engagement gives us something very different from a snapshot. It creates a longitudinal picture that can help identify where support may be relevant earlier.And importantly, it can translate into action.Since February, 42,408 people have flagged a stress, sleep, mood, pain or mental health risk through YuLife. Of those, 87% received a personalised recommendation within a day and 47% went on to act on one.For us, that is the opportunity in workplace health: shortening the distance between someone beginning to struggle and receiving relevant support.How AI changes what’s possibleAt the heart of YuLife is an AI powered health intelligence and engagement layer that learns from ongoing health interactions to become more personalised and useful over time.Rather than asking everyone the same static set of questions, the experience adapts questions and recommendations to each individual, helping surface relevant support earlier.At the same time, anonymised and aggregated insights give employers a clearer picture of how workforce health is changing and where support may be needed.It is part of a bigger shift in how we think about insurance and workplace health.Insurance has always been there when something goes wrong. AI, behavioural science and sustained engagement create the opportunity for it to play a much more active role before that point too.We need to understand workforce health, not just measure absenceThis is one of the most important ideas behind Keep Britain Working.Knowing how many people were absent last month matters. But ultimately, it tells us what has already happened.The bigger opportunity is understanding how workforce health is changing now.Where is stress increasing? Where is pain becoming a problem? Are younger employees experiencing different pressures? Where are people struggling but continuing to work? And which interventions actually make a difference?Answering those questions requires better intelligence. But it also requires trust.Employees need to know that sharing information about their health is there to support them, not to monitor their performance. At YuLife, individual health interactions remain private, while employers receive anonymised and aggregated insights designed to help them understand workforce level trends.Building the evidence for what worksYuLife became a Keep Britain Working Vanguard in July, joining employers and organisations helping build the evidence around how Britain can keep more people healthy and in work.As Tal Gilbert, CEO of YuLife, explains:The scale of the challenge is significant. But so is the opportunity.If we can understand what is happening to people’s health while they are still at work, we have a much better chance of supporting them before today’s warning signs become tomorrow’s long term absence.Read the Government’s Keep Britain Working: A National Growth Opportunity reportAbout the dataThe analysis draws on YuLife’s Dynamic Health Questionnaire data, which contains more than 67 million health responses, including 50 million collected in the past year. More than 5 million daily health check ins have been completed by 70,000 employees. Sample sizes vary by question and findings are based on self reported responses. Speak to our team todayWant more insights on the data above? Ask your questions here and one of our experts will call you back shortly. We aim to reach out within 10 minutes during regular working hours.*Associations between health factors and absence should not be interpreted as evidence of causation.