"Where Legal & General Group Protection is concerned, this includes everything from support to carrying out stress risk assessments and acting on the findings to help leaders communicate in a way that creates a culture of wellbeing."
- Vanessa Sallows, L&G claims and governance director
The London-based financial services company believes this is a direct effect of the Pandemic and indicates SME employees need help to design, implement and monitor group risk programmes within their businesses.
According to L&G, 9 in 10 employers with 50-249 employees, and 8 in 10 with 10-49 employees, claim the Pandemic has changed the way they think about employee wellbeing and has challenged mental health priorities, budget, and advice.
Consequently, employee wellbeing is higher up the agenda for 40% of SME employers. This represents the top response for both employers with 10-49 and 50-249 employees.
This has led to a substantial proportion of SMEs of all sizes increasing budgets for wellbeing initiatives; 10-49 employees (27%); 50-249 employees (30%); 250+ employees (37%).
Moreover, 26% of employers said it’s become increasingly important to seek advice on how to support employee wellbeing. This has led to 35% of leaders in 50-249 employee organisations becoming ‘more comfortable getting support from advisers/consultants, via online or digital channels’ since the Pandemic.
Commenting on the study, Vanessa Sallows, L&G claims and governance director, has said:
“As indicated by these findings, there is an amazing opportunity right now for the insurance industry to help SMEs of all sizes realise their employee health and wellbeing ambitions. And to do so in a way that is cost effective, outcome driven and foundation focused.
"In other words, that helps organisations look at the underlying causes of wellbeing, not just surface layer fixes.
“Research in the past has already shown that for SMEs, Group Income Protection is about much more than the claim. The majority use it to look after their staff and families and to differentiate their programme to support recruitment and retention.
“At Legal & General we’ve long-recognised this, excelling in our return-to-work capabilities to the point where, last year, 20% of all employees in the UK, that had claimed on a Group Income Protection policy and were able to return to work within the deferred period, were supported by Legal & General.”
