What are the Social Determinants of Health? Understanding them is key to driving workplace wellbeing.

Consider, for example, a parent on your team who skips meals so their child can eat. They might rely on break-room coffee to get through the day, hoping things will improve next week. 

An employee checks their banking app, deciding which bills can wait—gas or food, rent or childcare. Something is always postponed. 

Another team member may not openly share their challenges. They fulfill their responsibilities and appear positive, but stressors like unstable housing and unreliable transportation remain ever-present. 

These situations can be hard to notice, but they’re common. Nearly half of adults—including workers—say at least one basic need isn’t met, affecting their energy, focus, health, and engagement at work. 

Understanding the social determinants of health 

Many believe having a job meets basic needs, but for many employees, additional factors, also known as social determinants of health (SDOH), play a significant role. 

The  social determinants of health (SDOH) are the social, economic, and environmental conditions that influence almost every aspect of an individual’s care, impacting both health status and health outcomes across a broad spectrum of conditions. SDOH conditions can drive as much as up to 80% of health outcomes – factors largely outside of the traditional healthcare system. 

Social determinants of health fall into five categories: 

• Economic stability 

• Education access and quality 

• Healthcare access and quality 

• Neighborhood and built environment 

• Social and community context 

Together, these factors create a clear connection between environments and conditions in which people live, health equity, and employee wellbeing.  

What impact do unmet needs have on your workplace? 

Addressing essential needs is an overlooked workplace issue 

When essential needs go unmet, employees face barriers to care. They may delay doctor visits, skip medications, or struggle to manage chronic conditions. Over time, these challenges create health gaps across the workforce.  

Even among employees with commercial insurance, these barriers are common. The study, Social Determinants of Health Challenges Are Prevalent Among Commercially Insured Populations, found that: 

• 27% of commercially insured individuals live in ZIP codes at or below 200% of the federal poverty level 

• 55% report cost as a major barrier to care 

• 26% say family, school, or work responsibilities make it difficult to address their health needs 

These challenges don’t just affect employee wellbeing. They also affect employers. 

In the face of rising healthcare trends, cost-containment measures have become paramount. However, employers reducing funding for crucial services can exacerbate existing disparities, impacting short-term and long-term costs. Research estimates that health inequities and barriers to care drive roughly $320 billion in healthcare spending each year in the United States, and those costs could exceed $1 trillion annually by 2040 if underlying issues remain unaddressed. 

For employers and HR professionals, this raises an important question: Are we seeing the barriers employees quietly navigate? 

The real-life experiences of people with unmet needs 

Discussing food, housing, or transportation issues may seem abstract. Yet, as HR professionals, you witness these challenges every day as they impact your teams. 

Kayla rarely misses a shift. Her supervisor calls her dependable—the kind of employee who jumps in when things get busy. She also has diabetes. Insulin is costly, and the nearest clinic requires two bus transfers, meaning she will be late to work. Kayla sometimes skips doses or delays refills to make her medication last. 

Kayla’s story highlights transportation and health barriers. Mark’s experience further shows how personal struggles can persist beneath the surface. 

Like Kayla, Mark is dedicated to his job. A top sales manager known for closing tough deals, his life changed last year when his young daughter was diagnosed with cancer. He took a lot of time off for treatments and hospital visits. Most of his family’s support came from colleagues and friends while he was away, but now that he is back at work, he doesn’t have the same support. Mark spends a lot of his time trying to figure out how to pay the families monthly expenses in between sales calls. 

Just as Mark leads under strain, Luis faces his own silent challenges while staying committed to his work. Luis also shows a strong commitment at work. He works early shifts and rarely calls in sick. His coworkers see him as someone who shows up, works hard, and keeps things running when it gets busy. 

But lately, he’s been skipping lunch. After rent, childcare, and gas to get to work, there isn’t always much left for groceries. Some weeks, he stretches meals, so his kids have enough to eat, even if it means he goes without. 

Luis’s quiet perseverance reflects many employees’ experiences. His story, like Kayla’s and Mark’s, shows how unmet needs can silently affect work. 

These examples reveal a workplace reality: When employee needs go unmet, the impact ripples by showing up in absenteeism, healthcare use, productivity, and health outcomes.  

What does it look like for employers to address social determinants of health? 

Taking action: How employers can help with social determinants of health 

Addressing SDOH is not about replacing community resources or taking on social service provider roles. Often, employees struggle not from lack of resources, but from trouble finding or using benefits or community support. HR leaders can focus on building systems that connect employees with available support. 

An employer with a comprehensive wellbeing solution might: 

• Screen for social needs like food insecurity, housing instability, transportation challenges, caregiving duties, and financial stress 

• Provide tailored recommendations for local community resources 

• Offer access to thousands of verified programs that support essential needs 

• Help employees find support on their own, quickly and privately. 

• Analyze the connections between employees’ essential needs, health outcomes, and workforce performance to inform HR and benefits strategies and targeted interventions 

In practical terms, that support might look like: 

• An employee finds food assistance within minutes, rather than spending hours searching or going without 

• A caregiver identifies transportation options to get a family member to an appointment 

• A worker navigating housing instability discovering nearby support programs 

The social determinants of health don't just shape clinical outcomes; they shape the daily reality of your workforce, including employee mental health. 

Building health equity by strengthening community 

To address employees’ social determinants of health, Navigate partnered with the findhelp social care network in 2022. This partnership brings a robust community resource network directly into wellbeing programs at no additional cost to HR teams. 

With this integration, employees can connect to free or low-cost services in their communities by zip code, including: 

• Food assistance 

• Housing support 

• Childcare resources 

• Transportation services 

• Health-related programs 

To further our clients’ missions to advance health equity, organizations can now also incorporate a social determinants of health assessment into their Navigate wellbeing platform.  

With the findhelp assessment, employees start their care journey with a questionnaire in support of their essential needs. Based on the results, participants will receive findhelp social care network recommendations to connect with relevant local resources from over 970,000 verified programs spanning every zip code in the U.S. states and territories.  

Employers and partners receive comprehensive aggregated reporting to gain greater visibility into the barriers employees may be facing and analyze their population’s unmet needs. 

Human support matters too 

Adding health coaching to workplace wellbeing is another strong way to promote health equity. Health coaching ads a personal layer of support, helping employees navigate complex and often emotional challenges. 

Health coaches can: 

• Assess social and environmental needs 

• Spot barriers affecting employee health and wellbeing 

• Connect employees to employer benefits and local community programs using tools like findhelp 

• Help employees prioritize next steps and navigate available local assistance programs 

• Offering ongoing virtual support and accountability as employees work toward health and wellbeing goals 

Combining digital tools and human support creates a care system that meets employees where they are. 

Strengthening communities to advance health equity 

Improving health equity starts by recognizing that health is shaped beyond clinics. Access to food, housing, transportation, and community is key. Helping meet basic needs improves health, reduces absenteeism, boosts morale, and lowers costs. 

By addressing social determinants of health, HR leaders make a strategic investment in workforce strength and organizational success. 

Explore how Navigate addresses the social determinants of health to drive better outcomes for your employees and your organization.