Almost half of employees claim apathy towards their well-being is reducing the country's productivity, according to research by Business in the Community (BITC).

The study reveals that 31% of workers feel their health is neglected at work, while 62% don't believe bosses consider staff as assets worth investing in.

It found that employees complained that they were discouraged from taking sick days when unwell (44%), put under pressure to do unpaid overtime (44%) and prevented from taking a full lunch hour (40%).

The study found that 55% of employees were suffering from stress, 38% from depression and 22% from panic attacks.

Stephen Howard, managing director of BITC, says: “We know substantial investment is already being made in employee well-being, however, public reporting in this area is almost non existent.

“Our aim is to increase business accountability and competitiveness, by helping companies introduce simple health and well-being programmes that can be effectively measured against the bottom line.”

BITC has launched a national campaign, calling for at least 75% of all FTSE 100 companies to publicly report on employee well-being by 2011. The Business Action on Health campaign provides a suite of tools for UK boards to effectively measure bottom line impact of employee health and well-being investment for the first time.