A Men's Health MOT programme run by Peppy found that 42% of male employees were at elevated or high health risk - most without any awareness. This post shares the full data and what HR leaders should do next.
When Peppy partnered with a major banking client to deliver a Men's Health MOT programme. 100 male employees completed a full assessment covering physical health, mental wellbeing, sexual health and lifestyle risk factors.
The findings challenge a comfortable assumption that sits at the heart of most benefits strategies: that your male employees are broadly fine.
They're not and the data shows exactly why.
The headline finding from the Men's Health MOT: 42% of participants were flagged as elevated or high risk. Of those, 17% fell into the highest-risk 'Red' category, requiring urgent clinical follow-up.
In a workforce of 1,000 men, that's 420 people carrying significant, unmanaged health risk — driving presenteeism, eroding performance, and increasing the likelihood of serious future health events.
The higher-risk 'Red' group showed a severe clustering of symptoms:
These aren't men who are struggling and asking for help. These are men who showed up to work, answered 'fine' when asked, and had no idea of the clinical picture underneath.
The most operationally important finding in the data is the disconnect between how men perceive their own health and what the numbers actually show.
68% of participants rated their own health as 'Good' or better.
At the same time:
This is why passive benefits don't work for men's health. Gym subsidies, EAP helplines, and general wellbeing resources require men to self-identify a problem and seek support. But men who believe they're healthy — even when the evidence says otherwise — have no reason to engage.
Peppy's Men's Health MOT is designed specifically to close this gap. By giving men their own personalised data, it creates the trigger for action that passive benefits cannot.
Across the entire cohort, the three most commonly reported issues were mental:
This alone would be a significant finding. But the more important data point is the co-occurrence: 85% of men with a physical health concern also reported a mental health issue.
Physical and mental health in men are not separate problems requiring separate solutions. They are deeply interconnected and any benefits strategy that treats them in isolation will underserve both.
Mercer Marsh Benefits' Health on Demand 2025 data similarly found that 43% of men report lack of fulfilment or purpose, and 36% report feelings of loneliness — workplace implications that include reduced engagement, increased turnover risk, and higher rates of sick leave and presenteeism.
An EAP that men don't call is not a men's mental health solution.
Sexual health was one of the most clinically significant areas surfaced by the MOT and one that traditional health programmes almost never reach:
These are not isolated lifestyle concerns. Erectile dysfunction is a clinically recognised early marker of cardiovascular disease. In this cohort, men reporting erectile dysfunction showed the highest rates of hypertension. 85.7% of men with any sexual health concern also reported at least one mood issue.
By offering a discreet, non-judgmental entry point for these topics, Peppy draws men into a clinical pathway that surfaces the cardiovascular and hormonal risks underneath. Risks that would otherwise remain invisible.
Every participant received a personalised, RAG-rated result and a tailored pathway on day one. The response was immediate:
For context: the average EAP utilisation rate sits at around 5–6%. A 57% active clinical engagement rate from a standing start, within weeks, represents a fundamentally different level of impact.
Next steps include re-sending MOTs to engaged participants, to track measurable health improvements at six months and generate longitudinal outcome data.
Men's health is increasingly on the agenda. 53% of employers are expanding benefits for male midlife health, and the business case is clear: when men are healthier, the measurable impact on presenteeism, retention, and performance is significant.
But expanding provision only works if the provision actually reaches men. This data shows that the gap between what men believe about their health and what's actually happening is wide enough to drive undetected risk at scale across your workforce.
The Men's Health MOT finds that risk before it becomes a crisis. Here's what a Peppy programme delivers from day one:
The risk is already in your workforce. The question is whether your current benefits provision is finding it.
Talk to the Peppy Health team about running a Men's Health MOT in your organisation →
A Men's Health MOT is a structured health assessment programme designed specifically for male employees. It provides an overview of physical health risks, mental wellbeing, sexual health concerns, and lifestyle risk factors, then provides each participant with a personalised RAG-rated result and a supported clinical pathway.
In Peppy Health's Men's Health MOT analysis of a major banking workforce, 42% of male participants were flagged as elevated or high risk — many not fully aware of their risk status.
Men typically don't engage with EAP services because they perceive themselves as healthy and have no trigger to seek support. Peppy's data shows 68% of men rated their own health as 'Good' or better, yet 72% weren't meeting basic exercise recommendations. Without a personalised health assessment to surface their actual risk, most men never engage with available support.
According to Peppy's workforce analysis, the most common men's health issues at work are tiredness and low energy (62%), stress (53%), low mood (50%), and anxiety (45%). Importantly, 85% of men with a physical health concern also reported a mental health issue.
ROI on men's health benefits can be measured through engagement rates, clinical referrals, at-home testing uptake, and re-assessment outcomes at 6 and 12 months. In Peppy Health's banking cohort, 57% of participants moved from a digital assessment to active practitioner engagement within weeks — a measurable indicator of early intervention at scale.
Yes. General wellbeing programmes are rarely designed around how men actually engage with health. Men are significantly less likely to self-refer for support. A Men's Health MOT works by giving men their own personalised data — a proven trigger for action — rather than relying on them to proactively seek help.
Erectile dysfunction is a recognised early marker of cardiovascular disease. In Peppy Health’s workforce data, men reporting erectile dysfunction had the highest rates of hypertension in the cohort — reinforcing the strong link between sexual symptoms and underlying vascular risk.
Many men completing the MOT also reported symptoms associated with low testosterone, including low libido, fatigue, reduced muscle mass, and low mood. Hormonal health plays an important role not only in sexual function, but in cardiometabolic and psychological wellbeing more broadly.
Addressing sexual health provides a discreet and effective entry point into wider cardiovascular and hormonal assessment — supporting earlier identification of risk and better long-term health outcomes.