Research Methodology
This report draws on two main sources for its research and findings:
In June 2013, The Economist Intelligence Unit surveyed 418 senior business executives from the US, the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain—one-half of whom are from the board or C-level (CEO, CFO, CIO, etc). Twenty industries are represented in this sample, with just over one-quarter (28%) of companies coming from financial services or manufacturing. Around one-half of these companies have more than 500 employees or more than US$500m in annual revenue.
Alongside the survey, we conducted a series of in-depth interviews with senior executives, academics and other experts, supplemented by the desk research of relevant third party publications. Our thanks are due to the following for their time and insights (listed alphabetically by organisation):
• William Fried, senior medical director, Aetna (US)
• Frank Fox, head of occupational health, Anglo American
• Stefan Lang, chief medical officer and head of occupational medicine and health protection department, BASF (Germany)
• Graham Johnson, clinical lead, nursing, for Bupa Health Clinics (UK)
• Andreas Tautz, chief medical officer, Deutsche Post DHL (Germany)
• Angus MacGregor, director of human resources, Eversheds (UK)
• Al Smith, corporate director, safety, Greyhound Lines (US)
• Doug Quarry, medical director, medical information and analysis, International SOS (UK)
• Rod Ratsma, head of UK business continuity management practice, Marsh Risk Consulting
• Jenny Hawker, health management consultant, Mercer UK
• Helen Darling, president and chief executive, National Business Group on Health (US)
• Philippe Aeschlimann, spokesman, Nestle SA (Switzerland)
• Gill Macleod, chief executive, RoonLane Medical (UK)
• Amy Costello, senior benefits analyst, Staples (US)
• Lisa Hamblet, vice president, Staples Facility Solutions, Staples (US)
• Judy Harvey, manager, corporate industrial hygiene and workplace safety program, United Technologies (US)
• Jonathan Van-Tam, School of Community Health Sciences, University of Nottingham (UK); consultant on pandemic influenza to the World Health Organization
• Janice Hartgens, global occupational health manager, UPS (US)
• Tim Stevenson, head of medical services, Virgin Atlantic Airways (UK)
• Tom Sondergeld, director of team member health benefits and well-being, Walgreens (US)
• Tim Brne, director of immunization services, Walgreens (US)
The report was written by Andrea Chipman and edited by James Chambers